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.jpg) Lángara while playing for San Lorenzo | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Isidro Lángara Galarraga | ||
| Date of birth | (1912-05-25)25 May 1912 | ||
| Place of birth | Pasaia,Kingdom of Spain | ||
| Date of death | 21 August 1992(1992-08-21) (aged 80) | ||
| Place of death | Andoain, Spain | ||
| Position | Forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1930–1936[1] | Oviedo FC | 115 | (142) |
| 1938–1939 | CD Euzkadi | 9 | (15) |
| 1939–1943 | San Lorenzo | 121 | (110) |
| 1943–1946[2] | RC España | 80 | (105) |
| 1946–1948 | Real Oviedo | 29 | (23) |
| Total | 384 | (468) | |
| International career | |||
| 1932–1936 | Spain | 12 | (17) |
| 1937–1939[3] | Basque Country | 44 | (17) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1950–1951 | Unión Española | ||
| 1952–1954 | Puebla | ||
| 1955 | San Lorenzo | ||
| 1955–1956 | Atlas | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Isidro Lángara Galarraga (25 May 1912 – 21 August 1992) was a Spanishfootball forward from theBasque Country. He played 12 times forSpain, scoring 17 goals, and has the highest goal-to-game ratio inLa Liga history at 1.14. He was also the first player to score at least 100 goals for three clubs, being the only one to achieve it on three continents.
Lángara was born inPasaia,Gipuzkoa. He began his football career playing for local teams, Bildur Guchi, Esperanza de San Sebastián, Siempre Adelante de Pasajes and Andoain in his native Basque country, eventually signing for then third division teamTolosa CF.[4] When he turned 18, his goalscoring abilities were recognized by second division teamReal Oviedo, a club with whom he would remain for six years, until theSpanish Civil War broke out in 1936.
AtOviedo Lángara was the figurehead of the celebratedDelantera Eléctrica ("The electric forwards"), a forward line of lightning quick youthful talent that steam-rolled teams with high tempo highly skilled play; but for the onset of war the team would have surely improved upon the two third places in the seasons that preceded the war.
He was the winner of thePichichi Trophy, awarded to the top scorer in the Spanish League, in the three seasons before the war, with 27 goals in1933–34, 26 goals in1934–35 and 28 goals in1935–36. Even before that he was top scorer in the Spanish second division the year Real Oviedo was promoted.
During his first spell in Oviedo, he is recognized to have scored 281 goals in 220 games, this includes 231 goals in 160 competitive games. In the season 1933–34 he scored an unprecedented 60 goals in 32 games for Oviedo and another 9 goals in 5 games for the Spanish national team, this is still the highest single season goalscoring count for any Spanish born footballer.
In December 1936, he played one match forAthletic Bilbao.[5]
With the onset of war, he joined the Republican side. In 1937 he played exhibition games around Europe with theBasque National team to raise funds for the war effort.
When Bilbao fell to thefalange, the team traveled to the Americas touring Cuba, Mexico and Argentina. In 1938 they joined the MexicanLiga Mayor under the nameEuzkadi, finishing second. After the civil war ended in 1939 the team dissolved and Lángara traveled to Argentina in search of a new team, as a republican he could not return to Spain without risking harsh repression.
On the advice from his teammateÁngel Zubieta, he joinedSan Lorenzo de Almagro. His debut in 1939 was against perennial league champions River Plate and he scored four goals in a 4–2 victory, after arriving in Argentina on the morning of the same day. In 1940, Lángara was the joint top scorer in theArgentine Primera with 33 goals in 34 games (his record in Argentina playing for San Lorenzo – 110 goals in 121 matches). He also holds the record of scoring most goals in a match in Argentina – 7 – that still stands today.
With Lángara, San Lorenzo became an Argentine top side, eventually breaking the River Plate monopoly and winning the Argentinian league title. Lángara was San Lorenzo's star player alongside René Pontoni (courted by Barcelona but remained in Argentina) and Reinaldo Martino (who would later become a star with Juventus). Although he never won the league with San Lorenzo, the team finished twice in second place and won the Copa de Confraternidad Escobar – Gerona, an official trophy organized between the second placed teams from Argentina and Uruguay. With Lángara, San Lorenzo also reached the final of theCopa Adrián C. Escobar in 1939.
With the emergence of a professional league in Mexico in 1943, Lángara signed to Real Club España, where he would win his first and only national league title. In the Mexican league he was top scorer twice, in 1944 and 1946. Still today, he is the only footballer in history to be top scorer in major leagues on three continents; onlyAlfredo Di Stefano,Romário,Ruud van Nistelrooy,Robert Lewandowski andCristiano Ronaldo have matched the feat of being top scorer in three separate countries. In 1946 he was awardedCONCACAF player of the year – the top player in all the northern and Central American leagues.
After many years abroad, Lángara was offered the chance of returning to Spain to once again play for Real Oviedo. The following season,1946–47 and back in Spain, he scored a respectable 18 goals for the team. This tally left him fourth, behindZarra, Pruden and Calvo for the Pichichi Trophy, proving that at 34 years of age he could still perform at the highest level. At the end of the season, Lángara stunned Oviedo by announcing his retirement and emigrating back to live in Mexico.
After retirement, Lángara spent the majority of his years in South America. He returned to his home region in Spain in his late seventies, dying inAndoain in 1992.
His managerial career is sketchy but his achievements are as follows:
He managed Club de Deportes Unión Española in 1951 winning the Chilean league title.
He managedPuebla F.C. in 1952–53 winning the Mexican Cup Final.
As a footballer, Lángara was famed for his athleticism. Author of numerous "Impossible goals," he often scored from far out on the pitch. One particular famous occasion was on the opening matchday of the 1933–34 season when his Oviedo faced FC Barcelona winning the match 7–3. On that day, Lángara scored twice from set pieces around 50 metres out. When recounting the event, thenEspanyol goalkeeper Lázaro Florenza noted "he scored an impossible goal, not once but twice". A few weeks later, Lázaro was himself victim of a similar free kick by Lángara. His physical stature was noted by teammates the day of his debut with San Lorenzo, when he was asked whether he was a footballer or a wrestler. At San Lorenzo, he became famous for his extremely powerful shot scoring often from long distance.
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