| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Santiago Massana Urgellés | ||
| Date of birth | (1889-07-05)5 July 1889 | ||
| Place of birth | Barcelona,Catalonia, Spain | ||
| Date of death | Unknown | ||
| Place of death | Catalonia, Spain | ||
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||
| Position | Defender | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1903–1904 | Ibèric FC | ||
| 1904–1909 | X Sporting Club | ||
| 1909–1915 | Espanyol | ||
| 1915–1917 | Barcelona | ||
| 1915–1916 | Terrassa FC | ||
| 1916–1917 | Universitary SC | ||
| 1917–1918 | Espanyol | ||
| International career | |||
| 1910–1916 | Catalonia | 6 | (0) |
Medal record | |||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Santiago Massana Urgellés (5 June 1889 – Unknown), nicknamedTiago, was a Spanishfootballer who played as adefender.[1] He was best known for his height, which he imposed on his opponents. His brother,Alfredo Massana, was also a footballer.
Born inBarcelona, he joined the first team of Ibèric FC during the 1903-04 season, forming a great defensive partnership with the club's goalkeeper,Pedro Gibert, who also were teammates atX Sporting Club andClub Español de Fútbol. For the form, they played a pivotal role in the club's three back-to-backCatalan championships between 1906 and 1908, the latter two with the added help of his younger brother,Alfredo. In 1909, the club was effectively relaunched as theClub Deportivo Español, the name which still stands today.[2]
Easily identifiable on the pitch due to height, Tiago was a tough and forceful defender, dwarfing his rivals and he also enjoyed a strong shot that he often used to clear the balls from his area, but in a match againstEspañol de Madrid, he broke a leg, which endangered his football life, needing more than a year to recover.[3] After 5 season with Espanyol, winning two Catalan Championships in 1911-12 and 1914–15, he signed forFC Barcelona in the 1915-16 season (his brother Alfredo had been in Barcelona since 1912), with whom he won that season's Catalan Championship. He and his brother left Barcelona at the end of that season to play withTerrassa FC for the 1916-17 season, but then, while Alfredo returned to Espanyol, he joinedUniversitary SC in 1917,[4] where he played alongside former Espanyol teammateTurró, and at the end of the season both he and Turró returned to Espanyol in 1918, for whom they both played until retiring in 1922.
In 1922 he leftBarcelona for theAmazon basin, where he bought an island in the state ofPará and settled there.[3]
Like many other FC Barcelona players of that time, he played several matches for theCatalan national team between 1912 and 1916. In May 1915, he was a member of the team that participated in the first edition of thePrince of Asturias Cup in1915, an inter-regional competition organized by theRFEF.[5]
Llucià Oslé made a sculptural reproduction in bronze of Tiago, called "El Campió" which was housed in theOlympic Stadium for the1929 Barcelona International Exposition, as part of a pair of sports-themed pieces.[citation needed]
