Eduardo Reguera Andreu (13 October 1891 – 20 December 1977) 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 defender for FC Espanya 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 ...

. Reguera was one of the most important footballers in the amateur beginnings of FC Espanya, being a pivotal piece in turning FC Espanya into an important team in

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 ...

. He then joined rivals Barcelona, with whom he played for six years between 1914 and 1920, helping the club win three Catalan Championships and one

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 ...

in 1920.

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 1910 at his hometown club

FC Espanya de Barcelona FC España de Barcelona, was a Spanish Catalan football club based in Barcelona. They enjoyed a golden age during the 1910s and were Catalan champions three times during the decade. They were also Copa del Rey runners-up in 1914. By 1923 the club ...

, where he formed a great defensive partnership with

Hermenegild Casellas Hermenegild Casellas Bosch (1890 – 1969) was a Spanish footballer who played as a midfielder and later as defender. Together with Alfredo Massana, he was considered the best Catalan midfielder at the time. Although history seems to have blurr ...

. Unlike most teams, whose sources of power is either the attack or the midfield, FC Espanya's biggest strength was this back-line, which was the fundamental piece behind the team's rise in

, competing head-to-head against the likes of

and

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as RCD Espanyol, is a Spanish professional sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The club competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spa ...

, and winning two back-to-back Catalan championships in 1912–13 and 1913–14, thus qualifying to the

in which he helped the club reach the 1914 Copa del Rey Final, which still stands as the only cup final of the club's history, but Reguera missed it due to injury and without him, FC Espanya were beaten 1–2 by

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 ...

. His great defensive performances eventually drew the attention of

, who signed him in 1914. At Barça, he teamed up with

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Luis Bru, and helped the club win three Catalan championships (1915–16, 1918–19 and 1919–20) and to reach the

1919 Copa del Rey Final The 1919 Copa del Rey final was an association football match between Arenas Club de Getxo and FC Barcelona on 18 May 1919 at the Martínez Campos stadium in Madrid. It was the deciding match of the Spanish cup competition, the Copa del Rey. Bot ...

, in which his defense conceded 5 goals in a 2–5 loss to Arenas Club. This humiliation caused him to lose his place in the starting line-up, and so, on 19 October 1919, he was the subject of a tribute match along with Luis Bru, which took place at the

Camp de la Indústria Camp de la Indústria () or Campo de la calle Indústria was a multi-use stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It was initially used as the home venue of FC Barcelona, until the team moved to Camp de Les Corts in 1922. The capacity of the stadium was 6,000 ...

between Barça and FC Espanya, ending in a 2–2 draw. In total, he played 235 matches and scored 6 goals, although only 74 games and 1 were official. At the end of the twenties, he promoted the Barça football school, trained the lower categories of the club, and served as second

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

of the first team.

International career

Like many other

players of that time, Reguera played a few matches for the Catalan national team in 1915, netting one goal in a 2–2 draw with Basque Country on 7 February 1915. Reguera was a member of the side that participated in the first edition of the

Prince of Asturias Cup The Prince of Asturias Cup (, ) was an inter-regional football competition contested by the regional selections of Spain – selections of players from clubs from the region in question, meaning that players did not need to be native to the regio ...

, 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

; FC Espanya * Catalan championship: **Champions (1): 1912–13 and 1913–14 *

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-Py ...

: **Champions (1):

1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as the First World War, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip ...

: **Runner-up (1):

;

* Catalan championship: **Champions (3): 1915–16, 1918–19 and 1919–20 *

: **Runner-up (1):

1919 Events January * January 1 ** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (later Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia. ** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off th ...

International

;

: **Runner-up (1):

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 * ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reguera, Eduardo 1891 births 1977 deaths Footballers from Barcelona Spanish men's footballers Men's association football defenders FC Barcelona players Catalonia men's international footballers