| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Álvaro Pérez Vázquez | ||
| Date of birth | (1916-03-30)30 March 1916 | ||
| Place of birth | Mondoñedo, Spain | ||
| Date of death | 23 October 1997(1997-10-23) (aged 81) | ||
| Place of death | Valencia, Spain | ||
| Position | Defender | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1939 | Recuperación de Levante | ||
| 1939–1950 | Valencia | 165 | (1) |
| 1950–1953 | Hércules | ||
| Total | 165 | (1) | |
| Managerial career | |||
| Mondoñedo FC | |||
| 1955–1957 | Granada | ||
| 1957–1959 | Levante | ||
| 1959–1960 | Hércules | ||
| 1960–1961 | Córdoba | ||
| 1961–1962 | Real Oviedo | ||
| 1962–1963 | Granada | ||
| 1963–1964 | Cartagena | ||
| 1964–1967 | Algeciras | ||
| 1967–1968 | Levante | ||
| 1968–1969 | Hércules | ||
| 1969–1970 | Orihuela | ||
| 1970–1972 | Villarreal | ||
| 1973–1975 | Hellín Deportivo | ||
| 1976–1977 | Levante | ||
| 1979–1980 | Algeciras | ||
| 1981–1982 | Vall de Uxó | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Álvaro Pérez Vázquez, better known asÁlvaro (30 March 1916 – 23 October 1997), was a Spanishfootballer who played as adefender forValencia in the 1940s. He is one of the most important figures in the history of Valencia, where he stayed for 11 seasons as an undisputed starter, playing a crucial role in the team that won threeLa Ligas (1941–42,1943–44, and1946–47), twoCopa del Rey titles (1941 and1949), and oneCopa Eva Duarte in 1949.[1]
After retiring, he became amanager, taking over the likes ofGranada,Real Oviedo, andVillarreal.
Álvaro Pérez Vázquez was born in theGalician town ofMondoñedo on 30 March 1916, as the son of María Amparo Josefa Vázquez Álvarez and José Pérez Castrillo, the latter being a native ofSantander.[2] He began playing football for modest teams in his hometown, learning it from his brother Pepe, a high-ranking air force officer who spread his knowledge of the sport to the youth of Mondoñedo.[2]
A devoutFalangist, Álvaro fought for thenational faction during theSpanish Civil War,[3] during which he became a member ofRecuperación de Levante, a battalion whose mission was to recover parts from broken trucks and planes for repair in Levante, and which ended up formed an impressive football team that not only played severalfriendly matches in Valencia, but also participated in the 1938–39Aragón Regional Championship.[1][4]
Notably, on 12 May 1939, Álvaro held off the in-formFernando Sañudo to help his side to a 3–1 victory over the eventual championsClub Aviación Nacional.[4] During a match atLes Corts on 18 July 1939, he was sought after byBarcelona, who was looking to rebuild its squad following the Civil War.[4] Following a 2–1 loss toCeuta on 8 August, the local journalists expressed their admiration for three Recuperación players, including Álvaro andMundo, labelling them as imminent international players for theSpanish team.[4]
Once the conflict ended in 1939, the Spanish Army liquidated its crews, which allowedLuis Colina, Valencia's sporting director, to sign Recuperación's best players: Álvaro, Mundo,Waldo Botana, andPoli Inchaurregui.[4][1][5] He quickly established himself as an undisputed starter in Valencia, forming a great defensive partnership withJuan Ramón, which is widely regarded as the best pair of center-backs in Valencia's history.[1][3] Throughout the years, Ramón began seeing Álvaro as the brother he lost, despite Álvaro being a Galician who fought on the national side and Ramón being an anti-Franco Basque.[3]
Together with Ramón, Mundo, andVicente Asensi, Álvaro played a crucial role in the great Valencia team of the 1940s, which won three Leagues (1941–42, 1943–44, and 1946–47), two Spanish Cups (1941 and 1949), and oneValencian Regional Championship (1940) for a total of six titles, as well as one Cup runners-up (1944) and two League runners-up (1947–48, 1948–49).[1][3] However, he was unable to earn a single cap for the Spanish national team; he was called up only once, for friendly againstSwitzerland at theMestalla, but remained an unusedsubstitute.[1][6] Álvaro started in all three Cup finals, a 3–1 victory overEspanyol in1941, a 2–0 loss toAthletic Bilbao in1944, and achieving their revenge over Bilbao in1949, keeping a clean-sheet in a 1–0 victory.[7][8][9]
A tough player, Álvaro was never intimidated by opponents, being very hard to beat both in the air and on the ground, with his only weakness being his overconfidence.[1] Sports journalistManuel Sarmiento Birba once described him as "a defender of great power and sensational nerve. Tough, with manly tackles, he always exposed himself greatly in his interventions".[2] Therefore, Álvaro sustained several serious and unusual injuries throughout his career, such as a ruptured eardrum following a blow that nearly left him deaf inAlicante, or a kidney hemorrhage following a blow that nearly killed him, forcing him to miss over half of the 1945 league season.[1] Over the years, he and Ramón dominated zonal coverage, so both began to struggle following the tactical revolution of theWM, as they failed to adapt to strict man-to-man marking, and even though Álvaro managed to convert to the newly-created center-back position, he soon decided to leave that role toSalvador Monzó.[1] He stayed at Valencia for eleven years, from 1939 until 1950, always as an undisputed starter, playing a total of 282 official matches,[1] including 165 La Liga matches.[10]
In 1950, Álvaro wrote a very emotional letter to bid farewell to the Valencia fans before following Mundo toHércules,[1] with whom he played for three years, from 1950 until he retired in 1953, aged 37.[10]
After retiring, Álvaro became a manager, taking overLevante in the 1952–53 season.[11] On holiday trips to his hometown of Mondoñedo, he coached the local youth at theCampo de la Feria, and even coached the local club on one occasion in the mid-1950s.[2] Having started his managerial career with his hometown team, Álvaro then took over Granada in 1955, a position that he held for two years, until early 1957, when he was replaced byLuis Pasarín.[12] He led his former club Hércules on two occasions (1959–60 and 1968–69).[13]
In the early 1960s, Álvaro oversaw for one season each the likes ofCórdoba (1960–61), Real Oviedo (1961–62), Granada again (1962–63), andCartagena (1963–1964), which was followed by a three-year stint at the helm ofAlgeciras (1964–67).[10][12] He took over Oviedo on 20 October 1961, and left just four months later, on 27 February 1962, being replaced byAntón.[14] Notably, he also coached Villarreal from 1970 until 1972, and Algeciras again in 1980.[10][12]
After leaving the world of football, he settled in Valencia, where he died on 23 October 1997, at the age of 81.[1]
In November 2009, Álvaro was voted as Valencia's greatest defender by the club's fans.[15]