Rafael Martín Vázquez (born 25 September 1965) is a Spanish former professional

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 ...

who played mostly as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He represented most notably Real Madrid, having two different spells and amassing

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

totals of 252 games and 42 goals for the club. He also played abroad in Italy, France, Mexico and Germany. Martín Vázquez appeared for

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

at the

1990 World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being ...

and Euro 1988, winning nearly 40

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 Ja ...

Club career

Born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, Martín Vázquez joined the youth academy of Real Madrid in 1980 at the age of 15 and made his debut for the first team three years later, going on to achieve fame as part of the ''

La Quinta del Buitre is the moniker given by Spanish sport journalist Julio César Iglesias to the five homegrown Real Madrid players who were at the core of the team that dominated Spanish football in the 1980s. The name ("Vulture's Cohort") was derived from Emili ...

'' which still included Míchel,

Emilio Butragueño Emilio Butragueño Santos (; born 22 July 1963) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a striker. He was best known for his spell with Real Madrid. Nicknamed ''El Buitre'' (The Vulture), he was a member of the '' La Quinta del Buitre'' ...

Miguel Pardeza Miguel Pardeza Pichardo (born 8 February 1965) is a Spanish retired professional footballer who played as a forward. He was part of Real Madrid's generation of footballers known as '' La Quinta del Buitre'', but spent the better part of his ca ...

and

Manolo Sanchís Manuel Sanchís Hontiyuelo (; born 23 May 1965) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a sweeper. A part of the famous ''La Quinta del Buitre'' which stemmed from the Real Madrid youth academy, he was the only of its five members to ...

. In 1989–90, as Real achieved a club and

record of 107 goals, he scored a career-best 14, second only in the squad to

Hugo Sánchez Hugo Sánchez Márquez (born 11 July 1958) is a Mexican former professional footballer and manager, who played as a forward. A prolific goalscorer known for his spectacular strikes and volleys, he is widely regarded as the greatest Mexican ...

's 38 successful strikes. After the arrival of Romanian

Gheorghe Hagi Gheorghe "Gică" Hagi (; born 5 February 1965) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player, who is currently the owner and manager of Liga I club Farul Constanța. Deployed as an attacking midfielder, Hagi was considered one of ...

, Martín Vázquez decided to accept the offer of

Torino FC Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

, but failed to settle in Italy during his two-season spell, although he did help the side reach the

1992 UEFA Cup Final The 1992 UEFA Cup Final was played on 29 April 1992 and 13 May 1992 between Ajax of the Netherlands and Torino of Italy. Ajax won on away goals after a 2–2 draw in the first leg in Turin and a 0–0 draw in the second in Amsterdam. The victor ...

. He then moved to Olympique de Marseille but only lasted two months in France, after which a return to Real Madrid was arranged; in his two stints with the latter he won six leagues, two UEFA Cups and two

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

. As injuries hit him, Martín Vázquez eventually retired from football at the end of 1998, after unassuming spells with

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. They currently play in the Primera División RFEF – ...

Atlético Celaya The Club Atlético Celaya was a Mexican football club from Celaya, Guanajuato. The club was formed in 1994 when the two second-division clubs Atletico Cuernavaca (Morelos) and Escuadra Celeste de Celaya (Guanajuato) merged. Another team, Atlét ...

– where he teamed up with Butragueño – and

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the DF ...

(German

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

). Afterwards, he worked with Real Madrid as a youth coach while also keeping fit with the club's veterans.

International career

Martín Vázquez played 38 times for

, including at

UEFA Euro 1988 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. The tournament crowned the Nethe ...

and the 1990 FIFA World Cup. His debut came on 23 September 1987, in a friendly against

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

International goals

Honours

Real Madrid *

: 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1989–90, 1994–95 *

: 1988–89,

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

* Copa de la Liga:

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 ...

* Supercopa de España:

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Bicenten ...

, 1989,

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

: 1984–85, 1985–86 * Copa Iberoamericana: 1994 Torino *UEFA Cup runner-up: 1991–92 Spain U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 **Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal enter ...

Individual * Spanish Player of the Year: 1990

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin Vazquez, Rafael 1965 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Madrid Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players Deportivo de La Coruña players Serie A players Torino F.C. players Ligue 1 players Olympique de Marseille players Liga MX players Atlético Celaya footballers 2. Bundesliga players Karlsruher SC players UEFA Cup winning players Spain youth international footballers Spain under-21 international footballers Spain under-23 international footballers Spain amateur international footballers Spain international footballers UEFA Euro 1988 players 1990 FIFA World Cup players Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Germany Spanish expatriate sportspeople in France Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Spanish football managers Segunda División B managers Extremadura UD managers