To tie in with my new job, then, in this piece I tell the story of the first two Spaniards to ply their trade in the Football League.
In a quiz about Spanish footballers in England that was posted on the Guardian’s website twelve months ago – timed to coincide with the arrival of David Silva at Manchester City – the first question asked who the first player from the country to appear as a professional in the Football League was. As many a Who Wants to be a Millionaire? contestant relying on a 50-50 lifeline has found out to their cost, while two of the possible options could be ruled out immediately the remaining pair seemed equally plausible answers. In this example, Albert Ferrer (a Chelsea debutant in 1998) and Xabi Alonso (who followed suit for Liverpool six years later) were joined by the names Emilio Aldecoa and José Gallego.
It would be fair to say that Aldecoa and Gallego are not as well-known as Ferrer or Alonso, even though one was a full international who – like Ferrer – played for Barcelona. As opposed to their Premier League peers, though, Aldecoa and Gallego’s time in English football overlapped. They were born just five months apart and arrived in Britain in the same year as each other. The mere mention of the Spanish Civil War will be enough to explain that apparent coincidence. Aldecoa and Gallego hailed from the Basque country, the region whose army formed part of the Republican faction that ultimately lost the conflict. So it was, then, that in 1937 both men fled their homeland as refugees. Unlike many of their uprooted compatriots, they settled not in southern France but the heart of England. Arriving in the country aged 14 and 15 respectively, Gallego and his family moved to Cambridgeshire while Aldecoa’s wound up in Staffordshire.
It is Aldecoa whom the FA credit as the first Spaniard to play in the Football League. After his performances for a local works outfit had brought him to the attention of Wolves in 1943, Aldecoa had already been with Coventry for a season by the time League football officially resumed a year after the end of the War. What turned out to be Aldecoa’s only season in Division Two was not a particular success on an individual level – 29 appearances failed to yield a single goal for the left-winger – but Coventry did finish in a respectable eighth place, as Manchester City took the title. It was an underwhelming beginning and end to Aldecoa’s League career, when considered alongside his being a leading scorer in Major Frank Buckley’s wartime Wolves side, but the young man from Bilbao made history nonetheless during the course of 1946/47 – simply by taking to the pitch.
Joining Aldecoa in the Second Division that season, from the second half of the campaign onwards, was his compatriot José Gallego. An outside forward who had already spent four years with Cambridge City in the amateur divisions, Gallego earned a transfer to Brentford in January 1947. He made a handful of appearances before moving to the Bees’ Second Division rivals Southampton at the end of the season. A single substitute appearance was the only first team action that Gallego saw in two years on the south coast, although reports from that match suggest he might have made a better impression in time had it not been for an ankle injury. Gallego then made four appearances for Colchester United between 1950 and 1952, joining in the year the club was elected to the Football League.
After a respectable five-year stint as a professional, Gallego wound down his playing career with Cambridge United, who were then playing in the Eastern Counties League. He remained in the area even after retiring as a player, reputedly working for the local gas board.
Picking up Aldecoa’s story in 1947, however, sees him leaving England to return to Spain in order to join Athletic Bilbao. Although his Football League career was shorter than Gallego’s, it was Aldecoa who went on to enjoy greater and more prolonged success in the game. During his two years with his hometown club he picked up a cap for Spain, appearing as a substitute against the Republic of Ireland in 1948. Three years later, after a brief but prolific period with Real Valladolid, Aldecoa signed for Barcelona, helping the club to two Spanish championships and one Copa Latina (a forerunner to the European Cup). The two league titles that Barcelona won while Aldecoa was there were actually the fourth and fifth that the club had secured under the Franco regime, which is perhaps surprising given its association with Real Madrid. Of course, the team in white soon won their first championship since before the Civil War and then went on to dominate European football for the next decade.
After finishing as a player with Sporting Gijón in 1954, Aldecoa moved into management with Girona and then coached CD Condal (a precursor to Barcelona’s B team) before having a season with Real Valladolid in 1966/67. Alongside his assignments as a number one, Aldecoa’s coaching career also took in a two-year spell as a member of Birmingham City’s backroom staff. He took up a post with the Blues in 1960 at the invitation of Gil Merrick, their new manager. Merrick had featured for the Blues against Barcelona in the semi-final of the Fairs Cup in 1957 and was still a player when they lost the final of the same competition to the same opposition in 1960, albeit no longer first-choice goalkeeper. While both games came after Aldecoa’s time there as a player, the Spaniard’s name would still have been known at the Nou Camp – which might explain how the job offer came up.
With Birmingham City about to enjoy a jaunt in the Europa League this season, it’s pleasing to be reminded that Aldecoa joined the club as a coach at a time when they were enjoying something of a golden period in European football. After the near-misses of 1957 and 1960, Birmingham reached the final of the Fairs Cup again in 1961. Beating Helenio Herrera’s Internazionale home and away in the semi-finals was at least some consolation for the disappointing aggregate defeat to Roma that followed. Aldecoa left Birmingham in 1962, a year before Merrick won the Blues’ first – and only, until the club repeated the feat in February – major silverware, the 1963 League Cup.
This season, then, as you watch David Silva attempting to prise open defences for Manchester City, remember the names José Gallego and Emilio Aldecoa. They made the same journey from Spain to England some 75 years ago, but for very different reasons.
While researching this article, I discovered that a minister of the Spanish Republican Government in Exile wrote to FA Secretary Stanley Rous in 1946 to try to arrange a fixture between an XI featuring players displaced by the Civil War (including Emilio Aldecoa) and a British side. If anyone can shed any light on whether such a game ever took place, I’d love to know more. Please send me an email if you can help: sftmc@hotmail.co.uk.
In a quiz about Spanish footballers in England that was posted on the Guardian’s website twelve months ago – timed to coincide with the arrival of David Silva at Manchester City – the first question asked who the first player from the country to appear as a professional in the Football League was. As many a Who Wants to be a Millionaire? contestant relying on a 50-50 lifeline has found out to their cost, while two of the possible options could be ruled out immediately the remaining pair seemed equally plausible answers. In this example, Albert Ferrer (a Chelsea debutant in 1998) and Xabi Alonso (who followed suit for Liverpool six years later) were joined by the names Emilio Aldecoa and José Gallego.
It would be fair to say that Aldecoa and Gallego are not as well-known as Ferrer or Alonso, even though one was a full international who – like Ferrer – played for Barcelona. As opposed to their Premier League peers, though, Aldecoa and Gallego’s time in English football overlapped. They were born just five months apart and arrived in Britain in the same year as each other. The mere mention of the Spanish Civil War will be enough to explain that apparent coincidence. Aldecoa and Gallego hailed from the Basque country, the region whose army formed part of the Republican faction that ultimately lost the conflict. So it was, then, that in 1937 both men fled their homeland as refugees. Unlike many of their uprooted compatriots, they settled not in southern France but the heart of England. Arriving in the country aged 14 and 15 respectively, Gallego and his family moved to Cambridgeshire while Aldecoa’s wound up in Staffordshire.
It is Aldecoa whom the FA credit as the first Spaniard to play in the Football League. After his performances for a local works outfit had brought him to the attention of Wolves in 1943, Aldecoa had already been with Coventry for a season by the time League football officially resumed a year after the end of the War. What turned out to be Aldecoa’s only season in Division Two was not a particular success on an individual level – 29 appearances failed to yield a single goal for the left-winger – but Coventry did finish in a respectable eighth place, as Manchester City took the title. It was an underwhelming beginning and end to Aldecoa’s League career, when considered alongside his being a leading scorer in Major Frank Buckley’s wartime Wolves side, but the young man from Bilbao made history nonetheless during the course of 1946/47 – simply by taking to the pitch.
Joining Aldecoa in the Second Division that season, from the second half of the campaign onwards, was his compatriot José Gallego. An outside forward who had already spent four years with Cambridge City in the amateur divisions, Gallego earned a transfer to Brentford in January 1947. He made a handful of appearances before moving to the Bees’ Second Division rivals Southampton at the end of the season. A single substitute appearance was the only first team action that Gallego saw in two years on the south coast, although reports from that match suggest he might have made a better impression in time had it not been for an ankle injury. Gallego then made four appearances for Colchester United between 1950 and 1952, joining in the year the club was elected to the Football League.
After a respectable five-year stint as a professional, Gallego wound down his playing career with Cambridge United, who were then playing in the Eastern Counties League. He remained in the area even after retiring as a player, reputedly working for the local gas board.
Picking up Aldecoa’s story in 1947, however, sees him leaving England to return to Spain in order to join Athletic Bilbao. Although his Football League career was shorter than Gallego’s, it was Aldecoa who went on to enjoy greater and more prolonged success in the game. During his two years with his hometown club he picked up a cap for Spain, appearing as a substitute against the Republic of Ireland in 1948. Three years later, after a brief but prolific period with Real Valladolid, Aldecoa signed for Barcelona, helping the club to two Spanish championships and one Copa Latina (a forerunner to the European Cup). The two league titles that Barcelona won while Aldecoa was there were actually the fourth and fifth that the club had secured under the Franco regime, which is perhaps surprising given its association with Real Madrid. Of course, the team in white soon won their first championship since before the Civil War and then went on to dominate European football for the next decade.
After finishing as a player with Sporting Gijón in 1954, Aldecoa moved into management with Girona and then coached CD Condal (a precursor to Barcelona’s B team) before having a season with Real Valladolid in 1966/67. Alongside his assignments as a number one, Aldecoa’s coaching career also took in a two-year spell as a member of Birmingham City’s backroom staff. He took up a post with the Blues in 1960 at the invitation of Gil Merrick, their new manager. Merrick had featured for the Blues against Barcelona in the semi-final of the Fairs Cup in 1957 and was still a player when they lost the final of the same competition to the same opposition in 1960, albeit no longer first-choice goalkeeper. While both games came after Aldecoa’s time there as a player, the Spaniard’s name would still have been known at the Nou Camp – which might explain how the job offer came up.
With Birmingham City about to enjoy a jaunt in the Europa League this season, it’s pleasing to be reminded that Aldecoa joined the club as a coach at a time when they were enjoying something of a golden period in European football. After the near-misses of 1957 and 1960, Birmingham reached the final of the Fairs Cup again in 1961. Beating Helenio Herrera’s Internazionale home and away in the semi-finals was at least some consolation for the disappointing aggregate defeat to Roma that followed. Aldecoa left Birmingham in 1962, a year before Merrick won the Blues’ first – and only, until the club repeated the feat in February – major silverware, the 1963 League Cup.
This season, then, as you watch David Silva attempting to prise open defences for Manchester City, remember the names José Gallego and Emilio Aldecoa. They made the same journey from Spain to England some 75 years ago, but for very different reasons.
While researching this article, I discovered that a minister of the Spanish Republican Government in Exile wrote to FA Secretary Stanley Rous in 1946 to try to arrange a fixture between an XI featuring players displaced by the Civil War (including Emilio Aldecoa) and a British side. If anyone can shed any light on whether such a game ever took place, I’d love to know more. Please send me an email if you can help: sftmc@hotmail.co.uk.
