Ignacio Zoco Esparza (31 July 1939 – 28 September 2015) 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

defensive 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 ...

. He spent 12 years of his professional career with

Real Madrid 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 ...

, appearing in more than 400 official matches and winning ten major titles. Zoco played more than 20 times with

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, winning the

1964 European Nations' Cup The 1964 European Nations' Cup was the second edition of the UEFA European Championship. The final tournament was held in Spain. It was won by the hosts 2–1 over the defending champions, the Soviet Union. The tournament was a knockout compe ...

and also representing the nation at the 1966 World Cup.

Club career

Born in Garde,

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

, Zoco joined

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El ...

from another side in the region, amateurs CD Oberena. After spending the first months on loan to

CD Iruña Club Deportivo Iruña is a Spanish football team based in Pamplona, in the autonomous community of Navarre. Founded in 1939, it plays in Primera Autonómica de Navarra, holding home matches at ''Estadio Paternain'', with a capacity of 3,000 seat ...

, he made his

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

debut on 10 January 1960 in a 1–2 away loss against

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo is a Spanish football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926 as a result of the merger of two clubs who had maintained a large sporting rivalry for years in the city: ''Real Stadium Club Ovetense'' and ''Real Club De ...

, and eventually started in all of his appearances as the season ended in relegation. In the summer of 1962, Zoco signed for powerhouse

, playing only 13 matches in his first year, which ended with league conquest, but becoming a starter from there onwards. In 1965–66, apart from appearing in every minute in the domestic competition, he added nine complete games in the campaign's

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

, including the final against

FK Partizan Fudbalski klub Partizan ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Партизан, ; en, Partizan Football Club), sometimes known as Partizan Belgrade in English, is a Serbian professional football club based in Belgrade. It forms a major par ...

(2–1 win).Ignacio Zoco Esparza – Matches in European Cups
at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around the ...

Apart from those two accolades, Zoco won a further six national championships and two

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 ...

trophies with Real Madrid, totalling 64 matches in European competition with the ''Merengues'' (six goals scored). He retired in June 1974 at the age of 35 and, 20 years later, was appointed the club's match delegate in replacement of Miguel Ángel González, retaining the position until 1998.

International career

Zoco earned 25

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for

, making his debut on 19 April 1961 in a 2–1 away win against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

for the

1962 FIFA World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the seventh edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place b ...

qualifiers. He was selected for the squads at the

, helping the national team win the tournament, and the 1966 World Cup.

International goals

Personal life and death

Zoco married singer/songwriter María Ostiz (born 1944) in 1974, with the couple fathering three children and going on to remain married 41 years. He succeeded

Alfredo Di Stéfano Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxon name Alfred and a common Italian, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name. People with the given name include: * Alfredo (born 1946), Brazilian footballer born as Alfredo Mostarda ...

at the helm of Real Madrid's Veterans Association, after the latter's death. Zoco died in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

on 28 September 2015, after a long illness. He was 76 years old.Muere Ignacio Zoco, una leyenda del Real Madrid 'ye-yé' (Ignacio Zoco, legend of 'ye-yé' Real Madrid, dies)

Diario AS ''Diario AS'' () is a Spanish daily sports newspaper that concentrates particularly on football. Profile ''Diario AS'' is part of PRISA which also owns ''El País'' and '' Cinco Días''. The paper particularly covers news of the Community of M ...

, 28 September 2015 (in Spanish)

Honours

Club

Real Madrid *

: 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1971–72 * Copa del Generalísimo: 1969–70, 1973–74; Runner-up 1967–68 *

: 1965–66 *

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourn ...

runner-up: 1970–71 * Intercontinental Cup runner-up:

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo is ...

International

Spain *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

References

External links

*
Real Madrid biography
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zoco, Ignacio 1939 births 2015 deaths People from Roncal-Salazar Spanish footballers Footballers from Navarre Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Tercera División players CD Oberena players CA Osasuna players Real Madrid CF players UEFA Champions League winning players Spain B international footballers Spain international footballers 1964 European Nations' Cup players 1966 FIFA World Cup players UEFA European Championship-winning players Real Madrid CF non-playing staff