Jesús Garay Vecino (10 September 1930 – 10 February 1995) 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

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He amassed

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

totals of 341 games and ten goals over 16 seasons, representing mainly in the competition

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 ...

(ten years) and

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 ...

(five). Garay appeared for

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

at the

1962 World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the 7th 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 between ...

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 ...

Biscay Biscay ( ; ; ), is a province of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the Bay of Biscay, eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilb ...

, Garay joined local

in 1950 from neighbouring

SD Erandio Club Sociedad Deportiva Erandio Club is a football club from the Basque Country, from the city of Erandio in Biscay (Spain). The club was officially founded in 1915, and play in , though have played twice in the Spanish second division. Erandio Club ...

. He was immediately cast into the team's starting XI, making his

debut on 8 October 1950 in a 9–4 home win over

RC Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta Vigo, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), the club was fou ...

and scoring his first goal in the competition on 17 December of the same year also at the San Mamés Stadium, 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 ...

(4–3 victory). In summer 1960, after 292 official appearances for Athletic and five major titles won, including the 1955–56 national championship and three

Copa del Generalísimo 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 Spanish f ...

trophies, one of them conquered against

Real Madrid 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 ...

at the

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (, ) is a retractable roof association football, football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a seating capacity of around 83,000 following its extensive renovation completed in late 2024, the stadium has the second-largest ...

, Garay signed for Barcelona for 5,5 million pesetas, a fee that would later be used to build the ''Mercy'' stand at San Mamés, dubbed by club fans ''Jesús Garay''. He retired at the age of 35 after a further five seasons in the top division, four with the

Catalans Catalans ( Catalan, French and Occitan: ''catalans''; ; ; or ) are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citizens of Catalonia, a nationality and autono ...

and

one 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

with

CD Málaga Club Deportivo Málaga was a Spanish football club based in Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It played twenty seasons in La Liga, before being dissolved in 1992. History Origins The first football club in Málaga was establ ...

, suffering relegation with the latter. Garay died on 10 February 1995 at 64, in his hometown.

International career

Garay earned 29

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 Java ...

for the Spanish national team for eight and a half years, making his debut on 19 March 1953 in a 3–1 friendly win against

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

in Barcelona. He was part of the squad that competed at the

1962 FIFA World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the 7th 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 between ...

, featuring in the 0–1 group stage loss to

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

.Jesús Garay Vecino – International Matches
at

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

International goals

Honours

Athletic Bilbao *

: 1955–56 *

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

Copa Eva Duarte The Copa Eva Duarte was a Spanish football tournament organized by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and contested by the winners of La Liga and the Copa del Generalísimo. History In September 1940, a match with this format had the n ...

: 1950 Barcelona *Copa del Generalísimo: 1962–63

References

External links

* *
FC Barcelona profile
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garay, Jesus 1930 births 1995 deaths Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Bilbao Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players SD Erandio Club players Athletic Bilbao footballers FC Barcelona players CD Málaga footballers Spain men's B international footballers Spain men's international footballers 1962 FIFA World Cup players 20th-century Spanish sportsmen