Ricardo Gallego Redondo (born 8 February 1959) is a Spanish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. Most of his professional career was associated to

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 ...

, for whom he appeared in 372 competitive games in nine years, winning a total of ten titles. Gallego earned almost 45

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 ...

, representing the nation in two

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

and as many

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

Club career

A product of

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 ...

powerhouse

's youth system,

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 ...

-born Gallego made a quick impression with the first team, appearing in 26 matches in his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

and being a midfield mainstay the following seasons as he totalled 250 top-division matches with the conquest of, among others, four leagues, two

Copa del Rey 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 Spanis ...

and consecutive UEFA Cups (1985–86); blessed with physical and technical ability alike, he could operate with equal efficiency as

sweeper Sweepers are small, tropical marine (occasionally brackish) ray-finned fish of the family (biology), family Pempheridae. Found in the western Atlantic Ocean and Indo-Pacific region, the family contains about 80 species in two genus, genera. One ...

.A lifelong Real Madrid fan
at Real Madrid In the 1986–87 campaign, Gallego contributed 37 appearances and two goals (more than 3,000 minutes) as Real Madrid won the national championship, also reaching the semi-finals of the domestic cup. On 15 March 1987, however, he unluckily landed on Miguel de Andrés' knee, and the

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

player ended his career after that game, a 2–1 win at the San Mamés Stadium. Following a brief spell with Italy's

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional association football, football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football league system, Italian fo ...

, Gallego returned to Spain and the Spanish capital, spending one season with

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in the Villa de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish foot ...

in the

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 ...

and achieving promotion. Retiring at 33, he then worked with his first and last clubs in directorial capacities.

International career

Gallego played 42 times for

,1980 * 1990 Los mejores jugadores (1980 * 1990 The best players)
Diario AS, 24 August 2020 (in Spanish) his debut coming in a friendly prior to the impending

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

on home soil, a 24 February 1982 victory over

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

: after replacing

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

Víctor Muñoz Víctor Muñoz Manrique, (born 15 March 1957), known simply as Víctor as a player, is a Spanish retired football midfielder and manager. He spent most of his professional career with Barcelona, winning six titles and achieving La Liga totals ...

in the second half, he closed the score at 3–0.3–0: El contragolpe español noqueó a Escocia (3–0: Spanish fastbreak knocked Scotland down)

Mundo Deportivo ''Mundo Deportivo'' (; ) is a Spanish nationwide daily sports newspaper published in Barcelona. History and profile ''Mundo Deportivo'' was first published on 1 February 1906, as a weekly newspaper, and since 1929 daily. It is the oldest sports ...

, 25 February 1982 (in Spanish)Ricardo Gallego – International Appearances
at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

After being used only once in that tournament, Gallego became a nuclear defensive player in the next two competitions:

UEFA Euro 1984 The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh UEFA European Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. At the time, only eight countries ...

(a runner-up finish) and the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...

, retiring from international play after

Euro 88 The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in West Germany from 10 to 25 June 1988. It was the eighth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. France were the defending champio ...

. In mid-August 2011, he reunited with his former Spain and Real Madrid teammate

José Antonio Camacho José Antonio Camacho Alfaro (; born 8 June 1955) is a Spanish former football left-back and a former manager. He spent 15 professional years at Real Madrid, appearing in more than 500 official matches with the team and helping win 19 major ti ...

, acting as his assistant in the China national team.

International goals

Honours

Castilla *

runner-up: 1979–80Un Castilla para la historia (A Castilla for the ages)
Diario AS, 4 June 2020 (in Spanish) Real Madrid *

: 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89 *Copa del Rey: 1981–82, 1988–89 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Football in Spain, Spanish football. Founded in 1982 Supercopa de España, 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2 ...

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

Copa de la Liga The Copa de la Liga (League Cup in Spanish) was a Spanish football tournament created in 1982. Due to time constraints, saturation and club pressure, the competition only lasted four years, being cancelled in 1986. Winning the trophy helped two ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

: 1984–85, 1985–86

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gallego, Ricardo 1959 births Living people 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players Rayo Vallecano players Serie A players Udinese Calcio players UEFA Europa League–winning players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spain men's B international footballers Spain men's international footballers 1982 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1984 players 1986 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1988 players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Spanish expatriate sportspeople in China Real Madrid CF non-playing staff