Juanito (footballer, born 1954)

Juanito

Personal information
Full name	Juan Gómez González
Date of birth	(1954-11-10)10 November 1954
Place of birth	Fuengirola, Spain
Date of death
Place of death	Calzada de Oropesa, Spain
Height
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
1969–1972	Fuengirola
1972	Atlético Madrid
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1972–1974	Atlético Madrid	0	(0)
1973–1974	→ Burgos (loan)	26	(3)
1974–1977	Burgos	78	(21)
1977–1987	Real Madrid	284	(85)
1987–1989	Málaga	71	(15)
1989–1990	Jaén
1991	Los Boliches	5	(?)
International career
1970–1972	Spain U18	9	(0)
1976	Spain amateur	2	(0)
1976–1982	Spain	34	(8)
Managerial career
1991–1992	Mérida
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

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

Juan Gómez González (10 November 1954 – 2 April 1992), known as Juanito, was a Spanish footballer who played as a forward.

A player with tremendous dribbling ability whose career was overshadowed by a fierce character, he was best known for his Real Madrid years. He died in a road accident at only 37.

Growing up he supported Real Zaragoza, but as he approached his adulthood he began supporting Real Madrid. Upon his presentation in 1977, he said: "Playing for Real Madrid is like touching the sky, Real Madrid has always been my first choice as a team and Madrid has always been my favorite as a city". Over the course of 13 seasons, he amassed La Liga totals of 350 games and 99 goals.

Juanito gained more than 30 caps for Spain, representing the nation in two World Cups and one European Championship.

Club career

Born in Fuengirola, Málaga, Juanito played as a youth with his local club before joining Atlético Madrid in 1972. While still underage, he allegedly forged his papers so he could play for the Colchoneros' under-18 team. He scored twice on his debut, but a fractured tibia ended his career at Atlético and he never played for the senior side.

Juanito would revive his career at Burgos CF, helping them win the second division in 1975–76. He made his La Liga debut in a 2–1 win over RCD Español in the following season, and was eventually awarded Spanish Footballer of the Year by Don Balón.

Juanito soon attracted the attention of Real Madrid, which signed the player in June 1977. He became a prominent member of the successful Real side during the late 1970s and 1980s, in a squad which also featured Santillana, Uli Stielike, Vicente del Bosque and José Antonio Camacho. Having scored ten goals in his debut season he was instrumental in helping the capital team to five league titles, two Spanish Cups and two UEFA Cups – among his personal highlights were netting twice in the 1980 domestic cup final, incidentally played against Castilla CF, the club's reserves (6–1). On 11 May 1983 he scored through a penalty in the European Cup Winners' Cup final, a 1–2 loss against Aberdeen, and, in the subsequent league campaign, he won the Pichichi Trophy after finishing as joint top goalscorer with 17 goals; during ten seasons with the Merengues he played 284 first division games and scored 85 goals, adding 55 appearances in various European competitions (17 goals).

After leaving Real Madrid, Juanito played for CD Málaga for two seasons, helping the side promote from the second level in his first year, as champions – as legendary László Kubala was the manager – and scoring one of his five goals of the following campaign against former teammate Francisco Buyo, before retiring in 1989 after a few games as an amateur with first club Fuengirola, also in his native Andalusia. He subsequently began a working as a coach with CP Mérida, leading the Extremadura team to a seventh place in division two in 1991–92; however, on 2 April 1992, after watching Real play Torino F.C. in a UEFA Cup match, he was killed in a road accident in Calzada de Oropesa, Toledo, while returning to Mérida.

International career

Juanito played 34 times for Spain, scoring eight goals. His debut came on 10 October 1976 in a 1978 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Yugoslavia, in Sevilla: at the 30-minute mark, he replaced teammate del Bosque in a 2–0 win; in the second match with this opponent, on 30 November 1977 in Belgrade (1–0 success), he was hit with a bottle as he was being replaced and made an obscene gesture towards the crowd.

Juanito represented Spain at the 1978 and 1982 World Cups, and at UEFA Euro 1980. During the 1982 competition, on home soil, he netted a penalty against Yugoslavia in another win (2–1); in 1976, he played Olympic football.

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	27 March 1977	Rico Pérez, Alicante, Spain	Hungary	1–1	1–1	Friendly
2.	4 October 1978	Maksimir, Zagreb, Yugoslavia	Yugoslavia	0–1	1–2	Euro 1980 qualifying
3.	24 September 1980	Nepstadion, Budapest, Hungary	Hungary	0–1	2–2	Friendly
4.	18 February 1981	Vicente Calderón, Madrid, Spain	France	1–0	1–0	Friendly
5.	23 June 1981	Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	Mexico	0–1	1–3	Friendly
6.	23 June 1981	Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	Mexico	0–2	1–3	Friendly
7.	28 June 1981	Olímpico, Caracas, Venezuela	Venezuela	0–1	0–2	Friendly
8.	20 June 1982	Luis Casanova, Valencia, Spain	Yugoslavia	1–1	2–1	1982 FIFA World Cup

Profile / Temperament

Juanito is considered by most of Real Madrid fans to represent the essence of what the club is about, his spirit often being called upon before matches where the team need to make an unexpected comeback (because of all the comebacks he often led while donning the white shirt). One of these was against Celtic in the quarterfinals of the 1979–80 European Cup, with Real losing 0–2 in the first match in Glasgow: in the second leg the team managed to come from behind after scoring three times without response (the third by him), thus reaching the last four; another comebacks in this period included the downings of Inter Milan and R.S.C. Anderlecht.

Since his death Juanito continued to be remembered in the seventh minute of every home game, as the Ultras chanted "Illa illa illa, Juanito maravilla".

During his career, Juanito was involved in several violent incidents: in 1978 he received a two-year suspension after assaulting referee Adolf Prokop, in a match against Grasshopper Club Zürich. In a UEFA Cup contest against another Swiss side, Neuchâtel Xamax, he spat on former teammate Stielike; in 1987 he was again banned, this time for four years – an error in communications from UEFA meant that the sanction was originally thought to be of five – after deliberately stamping on FC Bayern Munich's Lothar Matthäus face.

Honours

Club

Real Madrid

• UEFA Cup: 1984–85, 1985–86
• La Liga: 1977–78, 1978–79, 1979–80, 1985–86, 1986–87
• Copa del Rey: 1979–80, 1981–82
• Copa de la Liga: 1984–85

Burgos

• Segunda División: 1975–76

Málaga

• Segunda División: 1987–88

Individual

• Don Balón Award – Best Spanish Player: 1976–77
• Pichichi Trophy: 1983–84

External links

• Juanito profile at BDFutbol
• Juanito manager profile at BDFutbol
• National team data (Spanish)
• Juanito at National-Football-Teams.com
• Juanito – FIFA competition record
• Real Madrid biography (Spanish)
• Stats at Amigos Malaguistas (Spanish)