Fernando Villaverde Lavandera (30 March 1894 – 23 June 1937), also known as Villaverde I 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 forward. His brothers, Saturnino and Senén, were also footballers and also played for Athletic Club de Madrid.

Club career

Born in

Gijón Gijón () or () is a city and municipality in north-western Spain. It is the largest city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality by population in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Asturias. It is located on the coa ...

, he began his career in the youth ranks of his hometown club La Sportiva, a leading Gijón team in the early 20th century. At La Sportiva, he stood out for his goalscoring ability, which eventually drew the attention of

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting is a Spanish professional association football, football club from Gijón, Principality of Asturias. Founded on 1 July 1905, it plays in the ...

, who signed him in 1910. In his first year at the youth ranks of Sporting, he excelled, receiving the distinction of best child player in 1911. He was thus, promoted to the first team in 1911, and eventually, he was named the team captain. In 1915, he signed for Athletic Club de Madrid, but after two seasons he returned to Sporting. In the first-ever Asturian derby between Sporting de Gijón and

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo ( Asturian: Real Uviéu) is a Spanish professional football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926, the club plays in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system. The club plays at ...

(named Real Club Deportivo Oviedo at the time) held on 25 January 1920, it was Fernando who scored the opening goals, thus netting the first goal of one of Spain's biggest rivalries. Despite his great goalscoring form, a broken tibia and fibula would end his sports career in 1920, when he was only 26 years old. In the same year, a match between two Asturian teams was held in Gijón in his honor, in which he acted as

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

. He also served as a referee in the first-ever game of the Asturias national team on 4 June 1922, which ended in a 3–7 loss to

St Mirren F.C. St Mirren Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in Paisley, Renfrewshire, that competes in the after winning the 2017–18 Scottish Championship. Founded in 1877, the team has two nicknames: ''The Buddies'' and ''The S ...

International career

In 1917, he was summoned to play for the Cantabric national team, a side consisting of players from the provinces of

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

and

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

. He and his brother Senén, were a member of the team that participated in the

1917 Events Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's ...

and

1918 The ceasefire that effectively ended the World War I, First World War took place on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of this year. Also in this year, the Spanish flu pandemic killed 50–100 million people wor ...

editions of the Prince of Asturias Cup, 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 ...

. In the 1918 tournament, he scored one goal against the Centro team, a Castile/Madrid XI, in a 2–3 loss.

Honours

International

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Villaverde, Fernando 1894 births 1937 deaths Spanish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Footballers from Gijón Sporting de Gijón players Atlético Madrid footballers