Alfred Massana i Urgellés, also known as Alfredo Massana Urgellés (27 July 1891 – 24 March 1924), was a Spanish

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

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for Espanyol and

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 ...

. He had a great placement and vision of the game. Known as a great dribbler, he was one of the best Catalan midfielders of his time. His brother, Santiago Massana, also played for Espanyol and Barcelona. He is also the grandfather of the

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

Tete Montoliu Vicenç Montoliu i Massana, better known as Tete Montoliu (28 March 1933 – 24 August 1997) was a Spanish jazz pianist from Catalonia, Spain. Born blind, he learnt braille music at age seven. His styles varied from hard bop, through Afro-Cuban, ...

Club career

Born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, he began his career in 1907 at his hometown club X Sporting Club, where he played alongside the likes of Pedro Gibert, and helped the club win back-to-back Catalan Championships in 1906–07 and 1907–08. In 1909, the club was effectively relaunched as the Club Deportivo Español, the name which still stands today. At Espanyol, he stood out as an extraordinary midfielder, which earned him a move to

in 1911. He was a member of the legendary Barcelona team of the early 1910s that also included the likes of Paco Bru, Enrique Peris, Romà Forns, Carles Comamala and Pepe Rodríguez, and together with them, he won 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 ...

titles in

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...

and

1913 Events January * January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his ''Marxism and the National Question''. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city. * January 3 &ndash ...

. In the 1912 final he scored the opening goal in an eventual 2–0 win over Sociedad Gimnástica. He played for Barcelona until 1916, scoring 30 goals in 131 games and winning two Pyrenees Cups (

and

), two Copa del Rey (1912 and 1913) and two Catalan Championships (1912–13 and 1915–16). He later moved to Espanyol, with whom he won another in 1917–18. He died at the young age of 33, in 1924.

International career

Like many other FC Barcelona players of that time, he played several matches for the Catalan national team between 1910 and 1916, scoring two goals. On 24 July 1910, Massana went down in history as one of the eleven footballers who played in Catalonia's first-ever international game (although not recognized by

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

), which ended in a 1–3 loss to a

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

XI. In May 1915, he was a member of the team that participated in the first edition of the Prince of Asturias Cup in

1915 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January *January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction". *January 1 * ...

, an inter-regional competition organized by the

RFEF The Royal Spanish Football Federation (; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. Founded on 29 September 1913, it is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. RFEF organizes the national cup competitio ...

Honours

Club

; X Sporting Club * Catalan Championships: **Winners (2) 1906–07 and 1907–08

* Catalan Championships: **Winners (2) 1912–13 and 1915–16 *

: **Winners (2)

and

* Pyrenees Cup: **Winners (2) 1912 and 1913 Espanyol * Catalan Championships: **Winners (1) 1917–18

International

;

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

* Prince of Asturias Cup: **Runner-up (1):

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Massana, Alfredo 1891 births 1924 deaths Footballers from Barcelona Spanish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders RCD Espanyol footballers FC Barcelona players Terrassa FC footballers Catalonia men's international footballers