Josep Samitier

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Josep Samitier
FC Barcelona 1928-1929.JPG
FC Barcelona team 1928–1929 - Samitier front center
Personnel
Surname Josep Samitier Vilalta
birthday February 2, 1902
place of birth Barcelona ,  Spain
date of death May 4th 1972
Place of death Barcelona ,  Spain
position midfield player
Juniors
Years station
1914-1916 FC Internacional
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1919-1932 FC Barcelona 28 (20)
1932-1934 real Madrid 8 0(4)
1936-1939 OGC Nice
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1920-1931 Spain 21 0(2)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1936 Atlético Madrid
1942 OGC Nice
1944-1947 FC Barcelona
1 Only league games are given.

Josep Samitier Vilalta (born February 2, 1902 in Barcelona , † May 4, 1972 in Barcelona ) was a Spanish football player , coach and scout . Alongside his friend Ricardo Zamora, he was considered the icon of football in Spain in the 1920s and was with him the most popular player. He played for both FC Barcelona and Real Madrid . He was also a national player. He later worked as a coach at FC Barcelona and worked as a scout for both clubs.

Samitier's career as a player

Career at FC Barcelona

He played for FC Internacional Barcelona until the age of 17 . At the beginning of his engagement at Barça he also played with Salvador Dalí , who later became known as a painter .

When Samitier, who played the striker, received his first professional contract, it became clear that he came from a poor background: As wages, he initially only asked for a suit and a watch with a phosphorescent dial.

In 1925 he was next to Zamora the highest paid player. His nicknames were El Màgia ( the magician because he was very inventive on the pitch) and Home Llagosta ( the lobster man because of his agility). A unified national league was introduced in Spain in 1928. Samitier's most important title up until then was five cup wins in the Copa del Rey . In the first year of the Primera División , his club became champions not least because of him.

Real Madrid career

In early 1933, Samitier clashed with the management of FC Barcelona. Shortly afterwards he was transferred to the second team as a punishment.

Samitier drew the logical conclusion and joined Real Madrid , then still Madrid CF . Here he played with Ricardo Zamora , with whom he was good friends throughout his life. However, these two years in Madrid were only the end of his career for him. In 1932/33 he was champion, but for the Madrilenians he played only eight games in the league (with four goals).

Career in the national team

Samitier made his debut in the very first game of a Spanish national team. That was on August 20, 1920 at the Olympiad in Antwerp (but the game took place in Brussels) against Denmark. He won the silver medal with the Spanish team. This was his greatest international success, and at that time there was no greater success: the first soccer World Cup did not take place until 1930 and Spain did not undertake the long journey to the host country Uruguay .

Josep Samitier made a total of 21 games for Spain's team . This was an extremely high value for the time. In those 21 games he scored two goals. He ended his national team career in 1931 with a 5-0 win over Ireland in Dublin .

Coaching career

Beginning of the coaching career and the Spanish Civil War

In the 1935/36 season he began his coaching career. He took over Atlético Madrid . The club was in the middle of a relegation battle. He could not prevent the relegation to relegation.

However, this game was no longer played: On July 17th, the Spanish Civil War began . Shortly after the war began, he came under the control of an anarchist militia. It was only thanks to his popularity that he was allowed to walk. He fled to France on a ship. He started playing again with Zamora at OGC Nice . In 82 games he scored 47 goals. In 1942 he stopped for good and briefly trained in Nice.

Return to Barcelona

In 1944, the club legend moved back home. In three seasons from 1944/45 he successfully trained his FC. In the first year he was champion and was thus also in the second title of Barça , albeit this time as a coach. The Spanish Supercup came to the championship. In the other two seasons, FC Barcelona came in second and fourth.

Career as a scout

His role in the transfer of Kubala

In 1950 László Kubala and his team went to Hungaria in Spain. The team was a gathering of refugees from Eastern Europe. Kubala was watched by scouts from Real Madrid and Barcelona, ​​just by Samitier.

Kubala eventually went to Barcelona. Probably Samitier used his contacts to Francisco Franco . He was very good friends with the leader of the regime himself. This went so far that the Caudillo had the Samitier stroke his paunch : “ The tummy has to come down again, General. “For the fascist and above all anti-communist Spain, Kubala was also useful as a propaganda object, the story of the athlete who fled from communism to“ free Spain ” fit with Kubala .

His role in the failed transfer of Di Stéfano

Even in the attempt to get Alfredo Di Stéfano to switch in 1953, Samitier was the driving force behind the transfer. As in the case of Kubala, both Real Madrid and FC Barcelona wanted to secure the services of one player.

This time the regime was not on Samitia's side. It was planned to move Di Stéfano to Madrid. Otherwise, Barcelona's dominance in the league would have been far too great. Samitier probably made the crucial mistake in courting the striker's services. Di Stéfano played for Millonarios in Bogotá . Samitier brought in Joan Busquets as another negotiator . He was a board member at CF Santa Fé , the rival of di Stéfanos club. Busquets sabotaged the action significantly. Barcelona's president also provided completely unworldly sums for the transfer in the room, which were far too low. Samitier had already created the conditions and Di Stéfano had found an apartment. He only moved in there briefly. He switched to Real . To what extent Franco was behind the transfer is also still unclear.

In 1960 Josep Samitier got into a serious argument with Helenio Herrera , the Barcelona coach. Like thirty years before, Samitier went to Real Madrid again . Here he continued to work in the same position.

Despite his closeness to Franco ( FC Barcelona was always a small place of the opposition) and his two "defections" to Madrid, the whole of Catalonia mourned when Samitier died in 1972 in his homeland. The FC arranged a solemn funeral that the whole city attended.

successes

Player:

Trainer:

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Samitians, Josep
ALTERNATIVE NAMES El Màgic; Samitier, José; Samitier Vilalta, Josep
BRIEF DESCRIPTION spanish soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona
DATE OF DEATH May 4th 1972
Place of death Barcelona