Telmo Zarra

Zarra
Personal information
Full name Telmo Zarraonandía Montoya
Date of birth (1921-01-20)20 January 1921
Place of birth Erandio, Spain
Date of death 23 February 2006(2006-02-23) (aged 85)
Place of death Bilbao, Spain
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1939–1940 Erandio 20 (12)
1940–1955 Athletic Bilbao 277 (251)
1955–1956 Indautxu 14 (3)
1956–1957 Barakaldo 12 (2)
Total 323 (268)
National team
1945–1951 Spain 20 (20)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Zarraonandía and the second or maternal family name is Montoya.

Telmo Zarraonandía Montoya (20 January 1921 – 23 February 2006), known as Zarra (Basque: [ˈs̻ara], Spanish: [ˈθara]), was a Spanish football forward. He spent the majority of his career at Athletic Bilbao, from 1940 to 1955, for whom he remains the top scorer in competitive matches with 332 goals.

Zarra signed for Athletic after playing one season for Erandio. He became a prolific goalscorer in his 15 seasons at the club, winning the Pichichi Trophy for the highest scorer in La Liga on six occasions. During his career, Zarra scored a total of 251 league goals,[1] a Spanish record that lasted nearly six decades. His 81 goals in the Copa del Rey remain a record today.

Despite his goalscoring records, he only played for Spain twenty times. Even so, he still managed to score 20 goals, including four in one match as Spain beat Switzerland 6–3 on 18 February 1951. He also scored his country's winning goal against England in the 1950 World Cup finals as Spain reached the final four—their best performance in the competition until winning the 2010 FIFA World Cup 60 years later.

After leaving Bilbao in 1955, he played for one year with SD Indautxu and another with Barakaldo before retiring. He died of a heart attack on 24 February 2006, aged 85. The Zarra Trophy for the highest-scoring Spaniard in La Liga is awarded in his memory.

Life

Childhood and first steps

Zarraonanía was born on 20 January 1921 at the Asúa train station in Erandio, Biscay. He was the son of Telmo Zarraonandía, an engineer and head of Asúa station, and Tomasa Montoya. Zarraonandía was the seventh of ten children, five of them boys.

When he was young, Zarraonandía used to play football with his neighbours. While other children had homemade or improvised balls, Zarraonandía had access to a real ball, as two of his brothers played football: Tomás, the oldest, who played in La Liga with Arenas de Getxo and Domingo, who died during the Spanish Civil War.

His father did not like Zarraonandía playing football, because "it was enough with two brothers in the practice of this game." But Zarraonandía liked the sport and began playing for several local teams, including Asúa and Pitoberese. At that time, he was nicknamed "Telmito the fearful", as he would play cautiously, being ashamed and self-conscious of his skill.

Zarraonandía signed his first professional contract with S. D. Erandio of the Second Division, and was incorporated into team during the 1937–38 season. Later Zarraonandía was recruited to a team from Biscay to play a friendly match against a team assembled from Guipuzcoa, during which Zarraonandía scored seven goals in a 9—0 win.

Around this time, Athletic Bilbao was looking for players to rebuild the team, which had been disbanded years ago in the chaos caused by the Civil War. The team began recruiting young, promising players from Erandio for their team for the 1940–41 season.

Professional stage and early successes

Zarraonandía debuted with the Athletic Club on 29 September 1940, in a league match against Valencia CF The game ended in a 2–2 draw, with Zarraonandía scoring both goals for his team (including his first league goal, scored 17 minutes into the game).

During the 1941–42 season Zarraonandía temporarily left Athletic Bilbao to join the army. He was dispatched to Ceuta, and played some friendly matches with the team there. Upon his return to Athletic Bilbao, Zarraonandía experienced one of the biggest disappointments of his career while playing in the final of the Copa del Rey against Barcelona. They had reached the end of normal time and neither team had managed to score. During extra time, Zarraonandía had an opportunity to score against rival goalkeeper Miró, but he missed the shot; consequently, Barça won the match and Cup.

The 1942–43 campaign was one of the most important for both Zarraonandía and Athletic Bilbao. Athletic reached the Copa del Rey final after having defeated Atlético Madrid and FC Valencia. There they hoped to defeat Real Madrid and this time, Zarraonandía was able to redeem himself by scoring the only goal in the final against Real Madrid, winning Athletic Bilbao the year's cup and title.

Zarraonandía's first serious injury occurred in the 1943–44 season in a match against Barcelona. He broke his clavicle and was unable to play for a while. Once recovered, Zarraonandía was able to return to the pitch and celebrate with a Copa del Rey title, helping Athletic record a 2–0 win over Valencia.

In the 1944–45 season, with Athletic again facing FC Valencia in the Copa del Rey final, 86 minutes from time a Valencia player fell to the ground. Zarraonandía made a move to trample the fallen player, as a joke, and he was sent off by the referee. This expulsion was the first and only he suffered throughout his career. Despite this, Athletic took the title that year thanks to a goal by Copero Iriondo that made the score 3–2.

1944–1953

Zarraonandía experienced the best moments of his career in the 1944-45 season with his first Pichichi Trophy marking 20 goals scored in 26 matches. Zarra would go on to win this award on five other occasions (1946, 1947, 1950, 1951 and 1953).

On 11 March 1945, Zarraonandía was selected by the Spanish coach Jacinto Quincoces to join the Spanish national team for a friendly match against Portugal in Lisbon. On 6 May of that year he played against Portugal again, and scored two of the four goals that won the match.

On 28 May 1950, Zarraonandía again played in a Copa del Rey final, this time against Real Valladolid after FC Valencia was disbanded. During the semi-final game, Zarraonandía scored four of the goals that won the game for his team. He opened the scoring at 14 minutes, but by end of regulation time the match was drawn. During extra time, Zarraonandía scored a hat trick as Bilbao won the cup. With his four goals against Real Valladolid, Zarraonandía holds the record for highest number of goals made in a Cup final.

Once qualified, the Spanish team played matches against the United States, Chile, and England in the 1950 FIFA World Cup. He scored one of the goals in a 2–0 win over Chile in the second match. Zarra referred to the third game, against England, as "the game of the century." Zarra's goal past the English goalkeeper Bert Williams won the match and sent Spain through at the expense of England. This goal, the most famous scored by Zarra, gave the victory to the Spanish team in their first World Cup semi-finals.

In the 1950–51 season Zarraonandía was able to score 38 goals in 30 league games, a Spanish record that stood until the 2010–11 season. This record was also achieved by the Mexican Hugo Sánchez, who scored his 38 goals over the course of 38 matches.

During the 1951–52 season Zarraonandía suffered his most serious injury of his career, on 25 November 1951 in a game against Atlético Madrid, when the opposing goalkeeper fell on Zarraonandía's leg. An operation was required for full recovery, which kept him out for the rest of the season. On his return in the 1952–53 season, he played 29 games and scored on 25 occasions, giving a scoring average of 0.86 from both seasons.

Last years and retirement

On 19 April 1954, Zarraonandía received a tribute in Madrid in recognition of his long career in Spanish football. This event was attended by several VIPs from the world of football, including Alfredo Di Stéfano, Antonio Puchades, Estanislao Basora, Piru Gainza, Eduardo Manchon, and Cesar Lesmes.

Zarraonandía was nearing the end of this career and watched as young, promising Athletic players took over his role on the team, including a young player named Eneko Arieta, who would become his successor.

Zarraonandía ended his Athletic career at the end of the 1954-55 season. From then on he devoted himself to playing for several teams in the Second Division until his official retirement from the game in 1957. Despite officially retiring from the sport, he continued playing football with the veteran players of Biscay, donating the money collected from these games to charities.

Statistics

International goals

Scores and results list Spain's goal tally first.
Club performance League Cup Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Spain League Copa del Rey Total
1939–40ErandioSegunda División2012002012
1940–41Athletic BilbaoPrimera División860086
1941–4220158112826
1942–431717882525
1943–44211210103122
1944–4526209143534
1945–461824202024
1946–472433633036
1947–4816900169
1948–4926221093631
1949–5026247133337
1950–513038683646
1951–52530053
1952–532924753629
1953–54521062
1954–55620062
1955–56IndautxuSegunda División14300143
1956–57BarakaldoSegunda División12200122
Career total 3232687481397349

Honours

Club

Athletic Bilbao

Individual

Decorations

Posthumous dedications

Records

References

  1. ↑ Zarraonandia at Athletic Club
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