Ramón Moreno Grosso (8 December 1943 – 13 February 2002) was a Spanish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

forward and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. He spent 12

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

seasons with

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

, appearing in 366 competitive matches (75 goals scored) and winning 11 major titles, including the 1966 European Cup.

Club career

Born in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Grosso reached

's youth system at the age of 15. He returned after a short loan at neighbouring

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

where he was instrumental in avoiding relegation from

in the 1963–64 season, going on to remain 12 years at the

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (, ) is a retractable roof association football, football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a seating capacity of around 83,000 following its extensive renovation completed in late 2024, the stadium has the second-largest ...

. Even though his teammates included the likes of

Amancio Amaro Amancio Amaro Varela (16 October 1939 – 21 February 2023), commonly known simply as Amancio, was a Spanish football player. Nicknamed ''El Brujo'' (The Wizard) he played outside right for Deportivo de La Coruña, Real Madrid, and the Spai ...

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, Grosso was team top scorer in his first two seasons, scoring 17 goals from 28 appearances in 1964–65 and 11 in 29 in

the following ''The Following'' is an American crime thriller television series created by Kevin Williamson (screenwriter), Kevin Williamson, and jointly produced by Outerbanks Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television. The The Following (season 1), first s ...

. He made his debut in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

on 23 September 1964, scoring in the 5–2 away win over

Boldklubben 1909 Boldklubben 1909, known as B1909, is a Danish association football club currently playing in the Denmark Series. They play at Gillested Park in Odense on Funen, which has a capacity of 6,000. Founded in 1909, the club spent a total 38 seasons ...

. In the following years, Grosso played in several positions for Real Madrid, even being placed as

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

in the Ramón de Carranza Trophy match against

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

. For his "team-first" approach he was eventually dubbed ''Obrero'' ( worker), and he left his main club in June 1976 at the age of 32, retiring from football subsequently. Grosso continued to work with Real in the following decades, as a manager: he started in the youth sides, then worked as head coach with

Real Madrid Castilla Real Madrid Castilla Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team that plays in . It is Real Madrid's reserve team. They play their home games at the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium with a capacity of 6,000 seats. Reserve teams in Spain play in the ...

in two separate

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

campaigns (23 games in 1986–87 and one in 1996–97, suffering relegation in the latter), and finally as assistant to the main squad; on 24 March 1991, following the dismissal of

Alfredo Di Stéfano Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé (; 4 July 1926 – 7 July 2014) was an Argentine professional footballer and coach who played as a forward, widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time. Nicknamed "Saeta Rubia" ("Blond A ...

and before the appointment of

Radomir Antić Radomir Antić ( sr-Cyrl, Радомир Антић, ; 22 November 1948 – 6 April 2020) was a Serbian professional football manager and player. Following a 17-year playing career as a defender, most of which he spent playing at Partizan, wit ...

, he acted as interim to the latter in a 1–1 home draw with

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo ( Asturian: Real Uviéu) is a Spanish professional football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926, the club plays in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system. The club plays at ...

International career

Grosso won 14

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in three years. His debut occurred on 1 February 1967 in a 0–0 draw against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

at the Ali Sami Yen Stadium for the

UEFA Euro 1968 The 1968 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in Italy. This was the third UEFA European Championship, an event held every four years and organised by UEFA. The final tournament took place between 5 and 10 June 1968. It ...

qualifiers, and he scored in the second contest between the two teams, a 2–0 victory in

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

International goals

Death

After a long battle with cancer, Grosso died on 13 February 2002 in his hometown of Madrid, aged 58. He was survived by his wife Amparo and five children, including the oldest María Ángela, who married Real Madrid player Paco Llorente.

Honours

Real Madrid *

: 1964–65, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1971–72, 1974–75, 1975–76 *

Copa del Generalísimo The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanish f ...

: 1969–70, 1973–74, 1974–75 *

: 1965–66

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grosso, Ramon 1943 births 2002 deaths 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football forwards Men's association football utility players La Liga players Tercera División players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Atlético Madrid footballers Real Madrid CF players UEFA Champions League–winning players Spain men's amateur international footballers Spain men's B international footballers Spain men's international footballers Competitors at the 1963 Mediterranean Games Mediterranean Games medalists in football Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Spain Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División managers Real Madrid Castilla managers Real Madrid CF managers Deaths from cancer in Spain