Germán Echevarría Usaola (1 December 1896 – 2 January 1984), also known as Maneras, 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 for Athletic Club. He spent all 13 seasons of his playing career with

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 ...

, thus being a historical member of the club in the 1910s and part of the so-called one-club men group. Naturally, he was also the second player in the history of the club to reach one hundred official matches for them, the first being Domingo Acedo. He played a pivotal role in helping the Basque club reach six

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 ...

finals and winning five of them, including three back-to-back titles between

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 ...

and

1916 Events Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 1 – The British Empire, British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that has been stored ...

Club career

Born in

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

, Echevarría began his career at his hometown club Athletic Club during the 1913–14 season, and he quickly became one of the club's benchmarks at the time, netting twice on his debut against Club Deportivo Bilbao on 23 November 1913. Echevarría was part of the legendary attacking front that Athletic had in the 1910s, which also included Severino Zuazo, Domingo Acedo, Félix Zubizarreta and Pichichi, and together with them he won the first edition of the regional North/Biscay championship in 1913–14, hence qualifying to the 1914 Copa del Rey which they also won thus completing the double (regional championship and Copa del Rey), which was the first of three successive doubles. In the 1915 final Echevarría netted once in a 5–0 win over

RCD Español 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 he also started in the 1916 final where he helped his side to a 4–0 win over

Real Madrid CF 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 ...

(then known as Madrid FC). Echevarría also played a pivotal role in helping Athletic reach a further three Copa del Rey finals in

1920 Events January * January 1 ** Polish–Soviet War: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. ** Kauniainen in Finland, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its ow ...

1921 Events January * January 2 ** The Association football club Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, from Belo Horizonte, is founded as the multi-sports club Palestra Italia by Italian expatriates in First Brazilian Republic, Brazil. ** The Spanish lin ...

and

1923 In Greece, this year contained only 352 days as 13 days was skipped to achieve the calendrical switch from Julian to Gregorian Calendar. It happened there that Wednesday, 15 February ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Thursday, 1 March ' ...

, winning the latter two. He captained Athletic in the 1920 final against

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 ...

, and as such, he was the one who stepped up to take a

penalty Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

awarded to his team, which he coolly converted, but the

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 ...

Enrique Bertrán annulled the goal alleging that Echevarría had shot before he gave the order to do it, and as a result, they lost 0–2. He stayed loyal to the club until his retirement in 1926, playing over one hundred official matches (107), which was a remarkable achievement in a time when not as many games were played. He was only the second player in the history of the club after Domingo Acedo to reach one hundred official matches for Athletic.

International career

Like most Athletic Club players of that time, he played several matches for the Basque Country national team, and in May 1915, he was a member of the Basque side that won 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 ...

. In the decisive game against a Castile/Madrid XI, Echevarría helped Basque grab a 1–1 draw that proved enough for the Basques to win the cup for the first (and only) time in their history. Almost inexplicably, Echevarría never earned an international

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for the Spanish national team.

Honours

Club

Athletic Club *

: ** Champions (5):

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 * ...

** Runner-up:

. * North/Biscay Regional Championship (8): 1913–14, 1914–15, 1915–16, 1919–20, 1920–21, 1922–23, 1923–24, 1925–26

International

; Basque Country *

: **Champions (1)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Echevarría, Germán 1896 births 1984 deaths Footballers from Bilbao Spanish men's footballers Men's association football forwards Athletic Bilbao footballers Basque Country men's international footballers