Antonio Sánchez de Neyra Castro (16 March 1884 – Unknown) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Madrid FC 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 ...

Club Español de Madrid Club Español de Madrid was a Spanish football club based in Madrid. The club was originally formed in 1901 after a conflict between Sky Football members caused some of them to leave and create a new club. Español de Madrid collapsed in the su ...

and

RCD Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

. He was one of the most important footballers in the amateur beginnings of

, being one of the main architects of the team's rise to national dominance in the 1900s. He was one of the members of the first Board of Directors of Madrid FC presided by

Juan Padrós Juan Padrós Rubió (1 December 1869 – 11 May 1932) was a Spanish businessman who was recognised as the 2nd official President of Real Madrid. He first took office on 6 March 1902, about 2 years after Real Madrid was created. Juan Padros Rea ...

in the club's official establishment on 6 March 1902. Outstanding goalscorer and a skillful dribbler, he reached the final 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 ...

numerous times with three different clubs, becoming over the years one of the footballers who added the most presences in finals, but only won one. Despite being an outstanding football player, a sport to which he owes his career, he was also an outstanding

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-dev ...

who also performed in other modalities such as

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from tw ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

gymnastics Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, dedication and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, s ...

, and

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an ancient sport, as demonstrated by t ...

ing among others, even participating in the

Spanish Athletics Championships The Spanish Athletics Championships ( es, Campeonato de España de atletismo) is an annual outdoor track and field competition organised by the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA), which serves as the Spanish national championship for the spo ...

. His brother

Pedro Sánchez de Neyra Castro Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for '' Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meani ...

, was one of the founders and the first president of the

Spanish Football Federation The Royal Spanish Football Federation ( es, Real Federación Española de Fútbol; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. It is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. It was founded on 14 October 190 ...

in 1909 as well as the first president of the Spanish Velocipedism Federation in 1896.

Biography

Neyra was born in

La Habana 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.

, Captaincy General of Cuba, in Cuba, because his father, the cavalry colonel Don Antonio Sánchez de Neyra Romero, was stationed there, when the country was under the sovereignty of the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...

. They moved to

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 ...

when he was still young. In Madrid, he was part of the Sky Foot-ball club, the first club that existed in the capital. However, in 1900, a new conflict between Sky Football members caused some of them to leave (including Neyra) and create a new club, Madrid Football Club, currently known as

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 ...

, with the official creation of the club being held on 6 March 1902 in the back room of Al Capricho. Neyra was present that day and became a member of the first Board of Directors of Madrid FC presided by

. He then become one of the first footballers of the newly formed

at the age of just 18, playing as a

. Together with

Pedro Parages Pedro Parages Diego-Madrazo (17 December 1883 – 15 February 1950) was a Franco-Spanish footballer, manager, and the 5th President of Real Madrid from July 1916 until 16 May 1926. During his mandate, Madrid FC received the Royal title (''Real' ...

Federico Revuelto Federico Revuelto (born 1883) was a Guatemalan footballer who played for the Madrid Football Club from 1902 to 1912. Biography Federico Revuelto was born in Cuyotenango, Suchitepéquez, Guatemala in 1883. Revuelto initially started play ...

and the Giralt brothers (

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 ...

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 ...

and

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, ...

), he was part of the historic Madrid team that played in the first-ever

1903 Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having been ...

, and it was he who netted the opening goal 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 ...

although they lost 2–3 to Athletic Club. Despite some encouraging first steps in the white club, it was possibly the fact of losing the 1903 Cup final that caused a convulsive situation within the entity that led to the departure of several of its founding members, including he and

Armando Giralt Armando Giralt Iduate (23 March 1885 - 21 April 1948) was a Cuban-born Spanish footballer who played as a forward for Madrid FC, Club Español de Madrid and RCD Espanyol. He was a member of some of the oldest football entities in Spain, such as ...

, abandoning Madrid FC in October 1903 to refound

(the club had already been founded in 1901, but collapsed in the summer of 1903) and of which he was named

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. It was common at the time for players to leave their respective teams to join or found others due to the still dispersed and confusing growth of football, in fact, some of the others departures marched to found the

Moncloa Football Club The Moncloa Football Club was a football team based in Madrid, Spain, which was founded in April 1902 and dissolved in 1907 after being absorbed by Madrid FC. Moncloa FC was only the third football club to have been founded in the Spanish capital ...

. Under Neyra's leadership, Español de Madrid won the second Centro Championships in 1903–04, hence becoming the second regional champions in Spain after

Moderno Football Club The Moderno Football Club, officially founded as The Modern Foot-Ball Club, was a football club based in Madrid, Spain, which was founded in November 1902 and dissolved just over a year later in January 1904 after being absorbed by Madrid FC. Mo ...

who had won the inaugural edition in 1903. In 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 ...

, Español de Madrid was unable to participate in the

, and so, Athletic were declared winners again. He stayed loyal to Español de Madrid for three years, until 1906, when he saw that it was the "madridistas" - a nickname that would come years later - who began to have a notable growth both institutionally and sportingly, so he returned to the club that he had left in 1903, and participated in Madrid's

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 ( ...

and

1908 Events January * January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica. * January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 4 ...

Copa del Rey winning campaigns, missing the

of the former, but redeeming himself by being the top scorer in the 1908 edition thanks to his goal in the 1908 final against Vigo Sporting, which ended in a 2–1 win. In 1908, he headed back to Español, and from there to another back-to-back Copa del Rey finals in

1909 Events January–February * January 4 – Explorer Aeneas Mackintosh of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition escaped death by fleeing across ice floes. * January 7 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama. * J ...

and

1910 Events January * January 13 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; live performances of the operas ''Cavalleria rusticana'' and ''Pagliacci'' are sent out over the airwaves, from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York Ci ...

, Neyra's third and fourth in a row, but unlike in Madrid, both finals ended in losses, first to Club Ciclista in 1909 final and then to

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional Football team, football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish footb ...

in the 1910 final (FEF), and remarkably, he lost the latter in a similar fashion to 1903: being 2–0 up at half-time just to ended up on the losing side 2–3. Neyra then reached a fifth final in a row, now with

, and just like in 1903, he lost to Athletic Club despite scoring in a 1–3 loss. It was in this club where the news of his sports activity was interrupted, suggesting he retired no long after that.

Honours

Club

* Centro Championship: **Champions (1): 1903–04 *

: **Runner-up (3):

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. * ...

and

* Centro Championship: **Champions (1): 1906–07 and 1907–08 *

: **Champions (2):

and

**Runner-up (1):

: **Runner-up (1):

1911 A notable ongoing event was the race for the South Pole. Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are added to the Commonwealth of Australia. * Ja ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neyra, Antonio 1880s births 20th-century deaths Emigrants from Spanish Cuba to Spain Sportspeople from Havana Spanish footballers Cuban footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football forwards Real Madrid CF players RCD Espanyol footballers Year of death unknown Date of death missing

Biography

Honours

Club

See also

References