Santiago Bernabeu
Santiago Bernabéu de Yeste (Almansa, June 8, 1895 - Madrid, June 2, 1978) was a footballer, coach and president of the Real Madrid Football Club. Bernabéu has been the president who has been in charge of the Madrid team for the most seasons, presiding over it for 35 years until his death.
During that period the club won sixteen Spanish leagues, six Spanish Cups and six European Cups, consolidating itself as one of the powers of European football. He also highlighted the trajectory of the basketball team, led by Raimundo Saporta, with 19 national leagues and 6 European Cups. In addition, during his direction, the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium was also built, which has been named after him since 1955, and the old Sports City. In addition to the stadium, and in honor of his work at Real Madrid, the club's summer trophy bears his name.
His long career as a manager, backed by success and social growth, has since then led him to be considered the most charismatic and important president in the history of Real Madrid. Under his tenure, new sports sections were opened that boosted its expansion, in addition to promoting new competitions such as the European Champion Clubs Cup (current UEFA Champions League), and the entity was endowed with a global dimension that it has managed to maintain as a hallmark. He did all this together with two proper names that he himself incorporated into the squad: the manager Raimundo Saporta and the striker Alfredo Di Stéfano.
The extensive and outstanding work in favor of soccer while he was a director of Madrid Club de Fútbol was recognized in the 1934-35 season with the distinction of the Soccer Merit Medal awarded by the Central Regional Federation —predecessor of the current Real Madrid Football Federation. Not in vain, despite not yet being president, he was one of the most influential figures in the club and national football for leading the professionalization of this sport in Spain, as well as the aid and support unconditionally lent to the federative organism.
Due to his special repercussion, significance, influence and involvement in the development of the sport, he was posthumously declared dean of soccer by FIFA and included in its Hall of Fame in 2014.
Biography
Bernabéu was born on the "La Cueva" farm, owned by his father in Montealegre del Castillo (Albacete), although he was registered at his parents' house in Almansa, where his family lived. He was the seventh child of José Bernabéu Ibáñez, lawyer from Onteniente (Valencia) and administrator of the properties of the Marquis of Villafuerte and the Countess of Montealegre, and of Doña Antonia de Yeste Núñez, of Cuban origin. At just five years old, he moved to Madrid with his parents and siblings. After arriving in the Spanish capital, Bernabéu entered the Real Colegio Alfonso XII de los Agustinos in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, where he had his first contact with football. Such was his ties to this sport, which his older brothers Antonio (1890–1967) and Marcelo (1893–1973) also practiced as an occupation, that he put aside his passion for music.
Later, he moved to the center of the city to study high school at the Cardenal Cisneros Institute and despite the fact that he initially wanted to study medicine, he finally studied Law at the Central University on his father's advice. He graduated in law.
With the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, Bernabéu took refuge in the French embassy for two years, as there were those who considered him sympathetic to the CEDA. He decided to take refuge, despite not having political activity, when he learned of the murder without trial of right-wing sympathizers. Later he managed to flee from the faction that threatened his life abroad and months later he returned, in the middle of the conflict, to join the ranks of the rebellious faction, where he appeared as an observer corporal under the command of Agustín Muñoz Grandes.
In the final years of his life, the president lived in the town of Santa Pola (Alicante) and, despite continuing to manage Real Madrid, he urged its Board of Directors to find a replacement due to problems of health, something that never happened. On August 29, 1977, the Bernabéu had to be rushed to Madrid with severe abdominal pain, and four days later the doctors diagnosed him with intestinal occlusion. Although the operation was favourable, the doctors detected that the president had cancer and his situation in the short term was irreversible. In his last months of life he received important decorations such as the Gold and Brilliant Medal of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, from the hands of its president Pablo Porta, and the Gold Medal for Sports Merit personally awarded by King Juan Carlos I.
On May 29, 1978, he suffered a new liver complication that caused a bile duct obstruction, and the president was in critical condition. Finally, he passed away on June 2 at 6:15 a.m. at his home, surrounded by his relatives.
The news of his death caused a great shock in Real Madrid, Spanish sports and international soccer institutions. UEFA President Artemio Franchi stated that "I don't think there is anyone who holds more honors for his work for football than him". More than 100,000 people attended the burning chapel located in the stadium, and on June 4 his mortal remains were buried in Almansa. After his death, he is considered the most successful president in the history of Real Madrid.
In 2002 he was posthumously awarded the FIFA Order of Merit.
Trajectory
The first great Real Madrid club player
At the Real Colegio Alfonso XII de los Agustinos de San Lorenzo de El Escorial he began to play soccer. For a while he even worked out at the facilities of the Spanish Gymnastics Society, of which he became a member, before joining the youth categories of the Madrid Foot-ball Club.
Although his origins were as a goalkeeper in the gymnastic team, Bernabéu soon began to alternate the position of center forward with that of interior in the youth team, positions that he had been developing in his last stage before joining Madrid Foot- ball Club —now Real Madrid Football Club— of which his brother, Antonio Bernabéu, was one of the founding members. Despite the fact that the Madrid coaches and coaches also wanted him to play as goalkeeper, again his other brother Marcelo Bernabéu managed to convince them to play the attacking position as had already happened in his previous team.
The player was part of the youth team for three seasons until in 1914 when he made his debut in an official match in the ranks of the first team. However, his first meeting took place on March 3, 1912 in a friendly match against English Sports Club scoring the winning goal for 2-1 at the age of sixteen, a season in which he established himself as a full member of the team, in which his brother Marcelo was one of the defensive pillars.
In said official match, corresponding to the Central Regional Championship, they faced the Royal Spanish Gymnastics Society, ending with a 3-1 defeat. Throughout the championship he scored three goals in five games that placed his team in third position. The revolution in which the squad was immersed prevented him from appreciating his real talent until the following season.With an average of more than one goal per game, he was one of the most outstanding in the championships won in the downtown area.
It is worth noting an anecdote in 1912 when several members of the team helped in the fencing work on the Madrid pitch, Campo de O'Donnell, with the young Bernabéu being one of those who participated in the work.
He quickly became the Madrid attacking reference thanks to his success as a goalscorer, forming a historic duo with the also very young René Petit. After the French international left the club, the player from Albacete assumed the leading role on his own until he formed a forward with other great players of the team such as Antonio de Miguel, Josechu Sansinenea, Alberto Machimbarrena, Ricardo Álvarez and especially with Manuel Posada, who, however,, he was the only one along with Bernabéu who was not part of the team the year in which the entity's fifth Copa del Rey title was won. Despite this, he scored eight goals in the other six games he did play, being awarded thus the highest award obtained throughout his career, of what was to date the only national competition in the country.
The player, who was the leading scorer at the time in Spain, did not, however, play any game with the Spanish team. A call in 1922 was his only relationship with the national team, and he did not request his presence again after not even making his debut.
Bernabéu's career at the white club continued until 1927 with the exception of the 1920-21 season, which brings us to one of the lesser-known episodes of his life and the reason why he is not listed as a member of the club in that period. During the aforementioned season and after spending six seasons in the first team, he left the entity for work reasons, although not sports practice, although other sources say that it was after a discussion with the Madrid board of directors. Thus, his great friendship with the former Real Madrid player and later president of Athletic Club de Madrid, Julián Ruete, made the player temporarily join the rojiblanco team —current Club Atlético de Madrid—, after having previously joined the Real Stadium Club Ovetense for the various transfers to the Asturian city assigned by the Treasury Accounting Corps. Despite this, and due to the regulations of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, he denied authorization so that he could play official matches with both teams as he had not One year has passed since he was listed as a Madrid Football Club player.
This was stated years later by his fellow Madrid player José María Castell and architect of the Chamartín Stadium:
"Even if what I'm going to say is a strong thing, because I had a great appreciation, Santiago Bernabéu betrayed us in 1920 and left for the eternal rival. A year later, when repentant returned to Madrid, he had lost his seniority as a partner and had to get in line. If I do not remember, Santiago played an official match with the Athletic Club of Madrid against the Spanish of Madrid, as well as posing with the reddish t-shirt with Julián Ruete, who had been a Madrid player for years and was then the president of the club of Spain.".José María Castell, San Sebastian.
After, in the end, an erroneous sporting decision, widespread among players of the time, he returned to wearing white for another six seasons in which the club was renamed Real Madrid Football Club due to the award of the title by King Alfonso XIII. His presence was reduced little by little due to the performance of new and young players like Víctor del Campo or Juan Monjardín, while he was studying his last years of university. Despite Castell's "bad memory", he did not play any official match as a rojiblanco. Nor did he play in Oviedo, despite this, he did play a friendly match on September 19, 1920, to which Castell referred, against Recreativo Español de Madrid —of second category and in which a young Félix Pérez played— as preparation for the 1920-21 Central Regional Championship. Curiously, it was the year in which the rojiblancos achieved their first official title, the targeted regional, with the absence de Bernabéu in the Madrid ranks, an entity that that year premiered its title of "Real" and awaited its return after the strange departure of the team, and which occurred for the following season.
During his active period at the club, he scored 68 goals in 79 games, standing out as a player with a tough and effective style. These goals made him the club's all-time top scorer, far surpassing the Madrid native's previous record Manuel Prast of 14 goals dated in 1914, a year before Bernabéu debuted. He won a total of ten titles, the aforementioned Copa del Rey in 1917, as well as nine Central Regional Championship titles. After his successes as a player, he became, for an ephemeral period, a manager and assistant coach before becoming a manager and finally president in 1943 —always of Real Madrid—, reaching the golden stage of the entity under his tenure with the remembered " Madrid by Di Stefano.
National team
His outstanding performances and his high goalscoring record were not worth it, however, for Santiago to play a game as an international soccer player in the Spanish team, although he did manage to be called up for a match against the Portuguese team on December 17, 1922, in which he finally did not make his debut. That was the first and only time he came close to defending the national team.
Leadership
Board of Directors
Scarred by the injuries that had weighed down his decline as a soccer player, Santiago Bernabéu retired from soccer in 1927, shortly after graduating in Law. However, he never practiced as a lawyer and preferred to continue leading the soccer team. At that time he assumed a position as delegate and assistant coach, and a year later he was appointed manager during the stage as president of Luis Urquijo y Landecho, Marquis of Bolarque. In 1929 he became secretary of the Real Madrid Board of Directors, a position which he occupied until 1935. In those years the Spanish soccer league was born with the professionalization of the institutions as the main objective, and his work was decisive for the signing of players such as Ricardo Zamora and Luis Regueiro.
The appointment in 1935 of Rafael Sánchez Guerra as head of Madrid did not have the approval of Santiago Bernabéu, who voted against it, but remained a member of the board of directors.
Presidency
After the war, Bernabéu returned to the managerial positions of Real Madrid, which in those years was going through a difficult situation, losing most of its best players and not having a stadium or headquarters. He married María Valenciano in 1940, with whom he had no children, and assumed a position as an official in the Ministry of Finance.
On September 15, 1943, the Real Madrid Board of Directors appointed Santiago Bernabéu as president, who set himself the goal of building a new stadium, cleaning up the club's battered economy and professionalizing the institution. In June 1944 formalized the purchase of some land attached to the old club field to build the facility, and finally the new Chamartín Stadium was inaugurated on December 14, 1947 with a 3-1 victory over Os Belenenses, before 70,000 spectators. The club's Board changed the name of the field on January 4, 1955 to Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, despite the initial reluctance of the president. Deportiva, a training center independent from the football stadium that until then was the usual place for preparatory exercises.
In an unsuccessful stage in sports, the Bernabéu tried to consolidate the reform in the sports institutions of Real Madrid. One of the key events in the basketball section took place in 1952 when the Bernabéu met Raimundo Saporta, from the Spanish Basketball Federation. He earned the trust of the white president when he took charge of the basketball section and made it one of the most titles in that sport in Spain. In recognition of his work, the Bernabéu promoted him to vice-presidency in 1961 and Saporta became his right-hand man.
Bernabéu bolstered the soccer team with notable signings, and was shrewd when recruiting rising stars of Spanish soccer. In 1947 he took over the services of Luis Molowny, a Canarian soccer player for the Marino Fútbol Club, one of the Las Palmas teams. The president read in La Vanguardia that FC Barcelona sent a representative by boat to hire the player, for which he paid Jacinto Quincoces —Madrid's emissary— a plane trip to Gran Canaria to sign the footballer for 250,000 pesetas. When the representative of Barcelona arrived on the island, he found the news that Real Madrid had beaten them to it. In 1952 he took over the services of Paco Gento, then a promising player from Racing Santander and who was later key in the white team.
However, the most successful signing during the Bernabéu administration occurred at Real Madrid's Golden Jubilee. To celebrate the club's 50-year history, the president invited Millonarios de Bogotá to play a friendly on March 6, 1952. The ultra-attacking game of the Colombians and their 4:2 victory caught the attention of Bernabéu, who was interested. especially for Alfredo Di Stéfano, the best player of that match. On June 28 of the same year, Madrid began a tour of Latin America to play the Small World Cup. In the stadium of the Central University of Venezuela, his team played again against Millonarios. The president was accompanied by José Lino Vaamonde, an architect exiled in Venezuela and member of the Board of Directors. Adolfo Pedernera's play caught the attention of the Bernabéu, but Vaamonde insisted on Di Stéfano's superiority. Real Madrid finally signed him from Millonarios in February 1953.
Di Stéfano led Real Madrid in the 1950s and 1960s with the achievement of the first titles under Bernabéu's tenure. The first league came in the 1953-54 season after 21 years without winning it, and with players like Paco Gento, Luis Molowny, José Emilio Santamaría, Miguel Muñoz, Raymond Kopa, Héctor Rial and Ferenc Puskás, Real Madrid became one of the powers of Spanish football.
Success in Europe
Apart from the national championship, Bernabéu was one of the promoters in 1956 of the creation of the European Cup for Champion Clubs, where the league champions of each country could compete against each other for a title that accredited them as European champions. The tournament was the idea of Gabriel Hanot, a journalist for L'Équipe, who had the approval of UEFA, and Bernabéu was one of his promoters as the Spanish representative in the different meetings. On June 13, 1956, Real Madrid was proclaimed champion of the first edition, in what was the first of its five consecutive European Cups. In recognition of the club's European victory, the Madrid City Council awarded it the Medal of Gold from the city 11 days later.
The sporting superiority shown by Real Madrid in the 1960s in domestic tournaments under the command of Miguel Muñoz, and the team's sporting successes in Europe were used by the Franco dictatorship to give a good image of Spain abroad This idea did not have the approval of Bernabéu, who despite his record in the Civil War and his conservative character maintained discrepancies with the regime and was more favorable to the restoration of the monarchy. The clashes between both parties increased when the Bernabéu awarded the gold insignia to the Israeli general Moshé Dayán on February 8, 1973, at a time when Franco did not recognize the state of Israel. Finally, the differences were made public in 1973 when Carlos Arias Navarro, mayor de Madrid, refused to reclassify the Chamartín land so that Real Madrid could clean up its economy and build a new field in the Fuencarral neighborhood.
In 1966 Real Madrid won its sixth European Cup, with a team made up exclusively of Spaniards, and during the 1970s the Bernabéu consolidated itself as a Real Madrid institution, popularizing actions such as the so-called Santiaguinas —talks by the president with the players and coaching staff— and with tight control of the institution. In addition, the basketball section also stood out in Europe with six European Cups until 1978.
Statistics
Clubs
Updated data to end of sports career. Non-accounted Federation Cup Data.
In the 1920-21 season, the player joined the ranks of both Athletic Club de Madrid and Real Stadium Club Ovetense due to various transfers for work reasons, clubs with which he did not play, however, any official match, since the rules of the time of the Spanish Federation did not allow it. These ruled that since a year had not elapsed since he ceased to belong to the Madrid discipline, he could not compete with another club. Thus, after an ephemeral step with hardly any activity as a member of other teams, he returned to the white discipline, ending his career in 1927 due to injuries he sustained.
| Club | Season | Div. | League (1) | Cup (2) | Regional (3) | Total (4) | Media Shotgun | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part. | Goles | Part. | Goles | Part. | Goles | Part. | Goles | ||||
| Madrid F. C. | 1914-15 | .svg){kind=small} 1.a C. | Non-existent | - | - | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 0.60 | |
| Madrid F. C. | 1915-16 | Non-existent | 5 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 13 | 1.18 | ||
| Madrid F. C. | 1916-17 | Non-existent | 6 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 14 | 1.27 | ||
| Madrid F. C. | 1917-18 | Non-existent | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 0.67 | ||
| Madrid F. C. | 1918-19 | Non-existent | - | - | 6 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 1.50 | ||
| Madrid F. C. | 1919-20 | Non-existent | 2 | - | 4 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 0.17 | ||
| Real Madrid F. C. | 1921-22 | Non-existent | 6 | - | 6 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 1.00 | ||
| Real Madrid F. C. | 1922-23 | Non-existent | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | 3 | 1 | 0.33 | ||
| Real Madrid F. C. | 1923-24 | Non-existent | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 0.50 | ||
| Real Madrid F. C. | 1924-25 | Non-existent | - | - | 8 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 0.63 | ||
| Real Madrid F. C. | 1925-26 | Non-existent | - | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Real Madrid F. C. | 1926-27 | Non-existent | - | - | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0.50 | ||
| Total club | 0 | 0 | 28 | 22 | 51 | 46 | 79 | 68 | 0.86 | ||
| Total career | 0 | 0 | 28 | 22 | 51 | 46 | 79 | 68 | 0.86 | ||
(1) There was no League Championship (1914-27). 1.a category club by the Regional Federation Centre. (2) Includes data from the Spanish Cup (1914-27). (3) Includes data from the Central Regional Championship (1914-27). (4) It does not include goals in friendly matches. | |||||||||||
Palmares and distinctions
As a player
| Title | Club | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Regional Championship |  Real Madrid F. C.
| 1916 |
| Regional Championship | 1917 | |
| Cup | 1917 | |
| Regional Championship | 1918 | |
| Regional Championship | 1920 | |
| Regional Championship | 1922 | |
| Regional Championship | 1923 | |
| Regional Cup | 1923 | |
| Regional Championship | 1924 | |
| Regional Championship | 1926 | |
| Regional Championship | 1927 |
As a leader
Note: titles achieved by professional sections under your mandate.| Team(s) chaired | National | Subtotal | Continentals | World | Subtotal | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| League | Cup | Another drink | C1 | C2 | C3 | M1 | |||||
| Real Madrid C. F. |  |  | 1 | 23 |  | - |  |  | 9 | 32 |
| Real Madrid Basketball |  |  |  | 45 |  | - | |  | 10 | 55 |
| Total | 35 | 24 | 9 | 68 | 12 | - | 3 | 4 | 19 | 87 | |
Among his official titles during his presidential term, two Small Club World Cups in 1952 and 1956 are not counted as their official status was not clear, nor five Ramón de Carranza Trophies in 1958, 1959, 1960, 1966, 1970, four Trophies Teresa Herrera in 1949, 1953, 1966, 1976, nor a Columbian Trophy in 1970 as they were friendlies.
During his presidential term, eight regional tournaments between 1957 and 1967 are not counted among his official titles, as their official status was not clear, nor eleven international FIBA Christmas-Raimundo Saporta tournaments between 1967 and 1978, as well as numerous national and international friendly trophies. international.