Ramon Torralba Larraz (13 August 1895 – 6 June 1986) is a famous figure in the history of

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 ...

. He was popularly known as ''la Vella'' ('the Old One') because of his long career with Barça.

Club career

Despite being born in

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

, he moved to

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

at just six months old, and there he began playing football at FC International in 1912, before joining

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 ...

two years later, with whom he played for the next 15 seasons, earning the nickname 'la Vella' (the Old One). He played as a holding midfield and was known for his strength and sacrifices. He formed a partnership with

Agustín Sancho Agustín Sancho Agustina (18 July 1896 – 25 August 1960) was a Spanish professional Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Born in Benlloc (province of Castellon, Valencia), he moved to Sants in Barcelona as ...

and

Josep Samitier Josep Samitier Vilalta (; 2 February 1902 – 4 May 1972), also known as José Samitier, was a Spanish football player, manager and scout who played as a midfielder for FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, OGC Nice, the Catalan XI, and Spain. He later ...

on the midfield. He was a regular in the starting line-ups from the 1914/15 season until the 1925/26 season. With Barcelona he won 10 Catalan championships, along with four

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 ...

titles 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 ...

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

1925 Events January * January 1 – The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria (1925–1930), State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini m ...

and

1926 In Turkey, the year technically contained only 352 days. As Friday, December 18, 1926 ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Saturday, January 1, 1927 '' (Gregorian Calendar)''. 13 days were dropped to make the switch. Turkey thus became the ...

, with Torralba scoring the opening goal in the 1922 final which ended in a 5-1 win over

Real Unión Real Unión Club, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Irun, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa, near the border with France. Founded on 15 May 1915 it currently plays in Primera División RF ...

. On 4 February 1917, he become the first player in the history of Barcelona to be granted a

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

, which took place at the Camp de la Indústria when he was still an active player. He retired on 1 July 1928, at the

Camp de Les Corts Camp de Les Corts (), commonly referred to as Les Corts, was a sports stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was the home for FC Barcelona until the club moved to the Camp Nou in 1957. It was also the home of CD Condal for the club's ent ...

, after a second tribute match.

Honours

Club

;

Catalan football championship The Catalan football championship ''(Campionat de Catalunya)'' was a football competition in Catalonia and the first football league in Spain before La Liga was established in 1929. In December 1900, Alfons Macaya, the president of Hispania AC, o ...

: *Champions (10): 1915-16, 1918-19, 1919-20, 1920-21, 1921-22, 1923–24, 1924–25, 1925–26, 1926–27 and in 1927–28

: *Champions (4):

and

References

FC Barcelona players 1895 births 1986 deaths People from Cinco Villas, Aragon Footballers from the Province of Zaragoza Men's association football midfielders Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Catalonia Catalonia men's international footballers {{Spain-footy-midfielder-stub