Ramón de Cárdenas Pastor (9 April 1884 - 31 October 1943) was a Spanish

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solici ...

and

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

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 ...

for Madrid FC (now

Real Madrid CF 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 ...

), Athletic Club, Español de Madrid and Club Vizcaya. He is best known for being the fourth president of the Athletic Club de Madrid (now

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in ...

) between 1909 and 1912. He is the brother of the architects Manuel de Cárdenas Pastor and Ignacio de Cárdenas Pastor.

Playing career

Sky/New FC

Cárdenas was born 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 ...

as the son of Ramón de Cárdenas y Padilla (1852–1926), a journalist born in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

who had emigrated to Madrid at the end of the

19th century The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolis ...

and who belonged to the Spanish nobility. He developed a deep interest in football in his youth, and soon enough he became one of the first football personalities in the capital. Cárdenas was one of the enthusiastic footballers that joined and played for Sky Foot-Ball Club, the first club to ever exist in the capital. However, the instability within the club prevented its development, and after suffering two major splits in 1900 and 1901, Cárdenas decided to leave the club in the third split, on 15 March 1902, joining Madrid FC, who had just been officially established on 6 March in the infamous meeting held in the back room of ''Al Capricho''. The last match he played for Sky was on 9 March, in a friendly between the club's members, as part of Sky's build-up for the upcoming ''Copa de la Coronación'', the forerunner of the

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 ...

founded a year later. In this game, Cárdenas played for the White Team and netted a goal in a 1–2 loss.

Madrid FC and Español de Madrid

Together with

Julián Palacios Julián Palacios Gutiérrez (22 August 1880 – 1947) was a Spanish mining engineer and businessman who was recognized as the 1st President of Real Madrid from 1900 until 6 March 1902. He was one of the first pioneers of football in Madrid, pl ...

, the Padrós brothers ( Carlos and

Juan ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of '' John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish ...

), the Giralt brothers (

José José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernac ...

Armando Armando may refer to: * Armando (given name) * Armando (artist) (1929–2018), the name used by Dutch artist Herman Dirk van Dodeweerd * Armando (producer) Armando Gallop (sometimes written as Armando Gallup) (February 12, 1970 – December 17, ...

Mario is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the '' Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his c ...

) and Antonio Neyra, Cárdenas was a member of Madrid FC's first-ever complete season, in 1902–03. A solid midfielder, he was nonetheless one of the several players who left Madrid FC at the end of 1903 to form their own club, Español de Madrid, among whom were Antonio Neyra and the Giralt brothers. Cárdenas played an important role in helping Español de Madrid win the 1903–04

Campeonato Regional Centro The Campeonato Regional Centro ( Spanish for Central Regional Championship) was an important annual association football competition for clubs based primarily in the Castile region of Spain, including the Community of Madrid, during the first half ...

, hence qualifying to the

1904 Copa del Rey The Copa del Rey 1904 was the second staging of the Copa del Rey, the Spanish football cup competition. The competition was played in 1904 in Madrid. It was notable for its chaotic development and the fact that Athletic Bilbao won the trophy wi ...

, which ended in controversy as they were unable to participate in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

, meaning Athletic Club were declared the champions.

Athletic Bilbao and Athletic Madrid

In 1905, after two years with Español de Madrid, José and Armando Giralt decided to return to Madrid FC, and Cárdenas followed them, but unlike the pair of brothers, Madrid's board of directors did not accept him back, so he joined Athletic Madrid instead, the Madrid branch of Athletic Club de Bilbao. Cárdenas stayed closely linked to both clubs, alternating between both sides. In 1907, the best players from Athletic and Unión Vizcaino came together to form Club Bizcaya, which was specially created to take part in the 1907 Copa del Rey, and Cárdenas was elected into the final cut, where he featured alongside the likes of Juan Arzuaga, the Sena brothers (

Alfonso Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

and

Miguel --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands * São Miguel (disa ...

), and Charles Simmons. He helped this team reach the

, where they faced his former club Madrid FC, and losing 0–1 thanks to a late goal from

Manuel Prast Manuel Prast Rodríguez de Llano was a footballer who played as a striker for Madrid FC between 1904–1908 and 1912–1914. He was a historical member of Madrid FC, playing a pivotal role in Madrid's four back-to-back Copa del Rey titles betwe ...

Presidency

In 1909 he became the fourth president in the history of the Athletic club. In the elections, he comfortably defeated the then-president, Ricardo de Gondra. It was during his tenure that the club managed to defeat Madrid FC in official competition for the first time in their history, doing so on 30 January 1909. However, the presidency of Cárdenas was not so triumphant, with the club experiencing poor sporting results, a weakened economy, and a decrease in the number of members. On 22 January 1911, when the team wore the red and white shirt for the very first time, since until then their shirts had been blue and white, the colors of their foundation alike the Bilbao team. In 1912, he was replaced by

Julián Ruete Julián Ruete Muniesa (29 January 1887 – 15 March 1939) was a player, referee, coach and football manager in Spain at the beginning of the 20th century. He was also a director of the Royal Spanish Football Federation. Some of his main achieveme ...

Honours

Español de Madrid * Centro Championship: **Champions (1): 1903–04 *

: **Runner-up (1):

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. * ...

Club Bizcaya *

: **Runner-up (1):

1907 Events January * January 14 – 1907 Kingston earthquake: A 6.5 Moment magnitude scale, Mw earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica, kills between 800 and 1,000. February * February 11 – The French warship French cruiser Jean Bart ( ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:de Cárdenas, Ramón 1884 births 1943 deaths Spanish footballers Association football midfielders Real Madrid CF players Atlético Madrid footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers