Alberto Ormaetxea Ibarlucea (7 April 1939 – 28 October 2005) 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 ...

defender ( right and left-back) and coach. His career was closely associated to

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

, as both a player and a manager. He was in charge of the team when they won their only two

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 ...

titles in the 80s.

Playing career

Born in Eibar,

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

, Ormaetxea started his senior career with local SD Eibar, with whom he was relegated from 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 ...

in 1958. The following year, he was purchased by

, who immediately loaned him to his previous club. Ormaetxea started playing as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

, but eventually switched flanks. In the summer of 1962, after two seasons with the reserves, he was promoted to the first team that had just been relegated from

, helping them return to the competition at the end of the 1966–67 campaign.Alberto Ormaetxea, técnico bicampeón de la Real (Alberto Ormaetxea, Real's two-time champion coach)
El Mundo, 31 October 2005 (in Spanish) Ormaetxea's best year in the top tier was 1969–70, when he started in all his 28 league appearances and scored twice to help the ''Txuriurdin'' finish in seventh position. He retired in 1974 at the age of 35 after several injury problems, having appeared in 280 games in all competitions.

Coaching career

Immediately after retiring, Ormaetxea joined Real Sociedad's coaching staff as an assistant manager. In 1978, he replaced José Antonio Irulegui at the helm of the main squad, taking them to national championship conquests in

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

and

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

as well as the semi-finals of the

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

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

. Additionally, in 1979–80, the club trailed

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 ...

by only one point and, taking the previous season into account, established a record of 38 matches without defeat that stood for several decades. Ormaetxea left

Hércules CF Hércules de Alicante Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team in Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded on 25 October 1922, it currently plays in Primera Federación and plays its home games ...

in September 1986 after only one month in charge, and retired from professional football, going on to work with Real's veterans and write for ''

El Diario Vasco ''El Diario Vasco'' ( English: ''The Basque Daily'') is a Spanish morning daily newspaper based in San Sebastián, Basque Country. History and profile ''El Diario Vasco'' was founded in 1934 by the Sociedad Vascongada de Publicaciones, led by ...

''.Muere Alberto Ormaetxea (Alberto Ormaetxea dies)

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

, 29 October 2005 (in Spanish) In 2005, he supported Miguel Ángel Fuentes as the latter ran for president of Sociedad.

Death

Ormaetxea died on 28 October 2005 in

San Sebastián San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (, ), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border ...

, after a long battle with illness. He was 66 years old.

Honours

Player

Real Sociedad *

: 1966–67

Manager

Real Sociedad *

: 1980–81, 1981–82 *

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 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ormaetxea, Alberto 1939 births 2005 deaths 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Eibar Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Tercera División players SD Eibar footballers Real Sociedad B footballers Real Sociedad footballers Spanish football managers La Liga managers Segunda División managers Real Sociedad managers Hércules CF managers