Saturday, April 10, 2010

Well, more or less, bellow are the rest of players Spanish clubs bought in 1973. Looks like self-made quiz by now: ‘are you able to recognize anybody?’ Most names did not ring any bell in real time, so it may be entirely meaningless quiz.
Hugo Sotil – the unlucky Peruvian star was more or less the first foreigner to sign for Spanish club in 1973. Barcelona got him from Alianza (Lima).
Oscar Mas left River Plate for all-white Real Madrid kit. Just like Sotil, the Argentine star was to be a reserve. Unlike Sotil, Mas played only one year in Spain.
Ruben Ayala – from San Lorenzo (Buenos Aires) to Atletico (Madrid). The Argentine was rising new star, but hardly world famous.
Ramon Heredia, a teammate of Ayala in San Lorenzo and teammate with him in Atletico (Madrid). And like Ayala – young, hugely promising, and not well known in Europe Argentine.
Salif Keita from Mali moved from Olympique Marseille (France) to Valencia CF. A big star in France and African Footballer of the Year in 1970, the Black Pearl was not very impressive in Spain.
Kurt Jara, up and coming Austrian forward, came to Valencia CF from Swarovski Wacker (Innsbruck). Complimented Keita… by not impressing anybody.
Big money is paid for big goalscorers? Not always… The Argentine goalkeeper Daniel Carnevali moved from Chacarita Juniors (Buenos Aires) to UD Las Palmas and stayed firmly on the Canary Islands the next 5 years.
As for the Uruguayan import Julio Montero-Castillo, one can only wonder… a national player and key defenseman of Nacional (Montevideo), he went to Granada CF. Going… down? At least his salary went up.
Saturnino Arrua. Who was he? Well, a Paraguayan player, whom Real Zaragoza acquired from Cerro Porteno (Asuncion). Outside his native country nobody really heard of him in 1973, but he played well in Zaragoza.
Real Zaragoza went Paraguayan – their second foreigner was Carlos Martinez Diarte, who made his fame playing for Olimpia (Asuncion). Fame in Paraguay, that is.
There were few more… one Juan Casco, also Paraguayan, joined Real Murcia. I am unable to find any photo of him, although he spent most of his career in Spain – he played for Elche CF between 1965 and 1970. An young Argentine came to Elche CF from FC Porto – Juan Carlos Heredia – but his case is dubious: he was FC Barcelona property, loaned to FC Porto. Barca got him in 1972, when he was ineligible to play in Spain. But Heredia eventually got Spanish citizenship and played 3 games for the national team of Spain, so he was not exactly a foreign player, but an oriundo. Behind the huge profiles of Cruiff and Netzer, the first foreign crop in Spain was hardly the cream of the cream. As Netzer put it at the time, ‘I am 28 years old and the end is near. Better make some serious money before it is too late.’ As for Jairzinho, Rivelino, Luigi Riva, and Gerd Muller – more gossip than reality… none ever played in Spain.