Arsenio Comamala López-Del Pan (1888 – Unknown) 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 ...

who played as a

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 ...

for

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

and

Madrid FC Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

. He is best known for being one of the first players to move from FC Barcelona to Madrid FC.

Career

Born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern 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 ...

. Arsenio began his career at his hometown club

in 1903, together with his brother, Carles. They played for Barça until 1911, being part of the club's first great team in the early 1910s, which had the likes of Massana, Amechazurra, Peris,

Paco Bru Francisco Bru Sanz (12 April 1885 – 10 June 1962), also known as Paco Bru, was a Spanish football player, referee and manager. As a footballer he played as a striker and midfielder for FC Internacional and as a defender for FC Barcelona, RC ...

and the Wallace brothers (

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...

and

Percival Percival (, also spelled Perceval, Parzival), alternatively called Peredur (), was one of King Arthur's legendary Knights of the Round Table. First mentioned by the French author Chrétien de Troyes in the tale ''Perceval, the Story of the Gra ...

). He helped this side win the Catalan championship three times in a row between 1909 and 1911, along with two

Pyrenees Cup The Pyrenees Cup (), officially Challenge International du Sud de la France, was an international football competition contested by Spanish and French clubs based in the territories of Pyrénées (Catalonia, the Basque Country, Languedoc, Midi-P ...

s (1910 and 1911), and one

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 ...

1910 Events January * January 13 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; live performances of the operas ''Cavalleria rusticana'' and ''Pagliacci'' are sent out over the airwaves, from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York Ci ...

, starting in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

where he helped Barça to a 3–2 comeback win over

Español de Madrid Español may refer to: *from or pertaining to Spain *Spanish language *Spanish people *Djudeo-Espanyol or Judaeo-Spanish, a language spoken by Jews *Argant, an ancient variety of red wine grape alternatively named Espagnol *RCD Espanyol *Club Soci ...

. In 1911 some Barcelona players left the club due to financial differences, including the Comamala brothers, but while Carles signed for Universitary SC, Arsenio joined

, but eventually also joined Universitary in 1912, and shortly before the end of the year, both joined Casual SC, together with other Barcelona dissidents such as José Quirante and the Wallace brothers. In 1913 Casual folded due to financial reasons and while Carles decided to retire, Arsenio returned to Madrid FC, before retiring at the end of the 1913–14 season.

Personal life

His brothers Carles and Áureo were also footballers, who both also played for Barcelona. His wife Montserrat Valls was great-aunt of former French Prime Minister

Manuel Valls Manuel Carlos Valls Galfetti (, , ; born 13 August 1962) is a French-Spanish politician who has served as a Barcelona city councillor from 2019 to 2021. He served as Prime Minister of France from 2014 until 2016 under president François Hol ...

Honours

;

* Catalan championship: **Champions (4): 1904–05, 1908–09, 1909–10 and 1910–11 *

: **Champions (2): 1910 and 1911 *

: **Champions (1):

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Comamala, Arsenio 1888 births Year of death missing Spanish footballers Association football midfielders FC Barcelona players Real Madrid CF players Footballers from Barcelona