Francisco Gento

Paco Gento

Gento with Real Madrid in 1967
Personal information
Full name	Francisco Gento López
Date of birth	21 October 1933
Place of birth	Guarnizo, El Astillero, Spain
Playing position	Outside-left
Youth career
	S.D. Nueva Montaña
	Union Club Astillero
	Rayo Cantabria
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
1952–1953	Racing Santander	10	(2)
1953–1971	Real Madrid	428	(128)
Total		438	(130)
National team
1956	Spain B	1	(0)
1955–1969	Spain	43	(5)
Teams managed
	Castilla
1974	Castellón
1977–1980	Palencia
1980–1981	Granada
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (goals)

Francisco "Paco" Gento López (born 21 October 1933) is a former Spanish football player, who played as a left winger.

Gento began his career at Racing Santander in 1952 and moved to Real Madrid the following season. He appeared in a joint record eight European Cup finals, winning a record six, as well as winning 12 La Liga titles.

In a 14-year international career, Gento earned 43 caps for Spain, playing at the World Cup in 1962 and 1966.

Biography

He débuted in the Primera División with Racing Santander in the 1952–53 season. In the following year, he signed with Real Madrid and became a legendary player of that club, wearing the number 11 shirt.

La Galerna del Cantábrico (The Gale of the Cantabrian Sea), as he was known, played outside-left and was noted not only for having great speed (he could run 100 meters in 11 seconds flat and was almost as quick with a ball at his feet), but also for his skills with the ball and his scoring prowess from the midfield position. He captained a young side, known in Spain as Ye-yé, because of the popularity of The Beatles at that time. He is regarded as one of Spain's greatest players

Among other honors, Gento won the European Cup a record 6 times with Real Madrid (an unmatched record), scoring 30 goals in 89 European Cup career matches. He also played for Spain from 1955 to 1969, winning 43 caps and scoring 5 times.

Gento played in eight European Cup finals (6–2 record) (with a "ninth" appearance in the 1970–1971 Cup Winners' Cup final that Real Madrid lost to Chelsea). He holds this record jointly with AC Milan's Paolo Maldini (with an inferior 5–3 record). Gento's legendary Real Madrid teammate, Alfredo Di Stéfano (5–2 record) comes third with 7.

After he retired from football in 1971, he decided to take up coaching. He took charge of various lower-league teams, such as Castilla, Castellón, Palencia, and Granada. In the end, he accepted a post working as an ambassador for Real Madrid throughout Europe.

Gento has two younger brothers called Julio (born in 1939) and Antonio (born in 1940) that also are former footballers and both played for Real Madrid but they were not as successful as their older brother Francisco.

Style of play

Regarded as one of the greatest Spanish players of all time and one of the greatest ever players in his position, Gento was an extremely fast left-winger, with excellent vision and technical ability, which made him an effective assist provider. In addition to his control and creative ability, he was also a goalscoring threat due to his striking ability from distance.^[1][2]

Statistics

Club

Club performance			League		Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Spain			League		Copa del Rey		Europe		Total
1952–53	Racing Santander	Primera División	10	2	4	0	0	0	14	2
1953–54	Real Madrid	Primera División	17	0	4	0	0	0	21	0
1954–55			24	6	3	0	0	0	27	6
1955–56			29	7	6	3	7	1	42	11
1956–57			27	7	2	0	8	1	37	8
1957–58			28	7	5	1	6	3	39	12
1958–59			21	7	5	2	8	1	34	10
1959–60			27	14	6	3	6	2	38	18
1960–61			28	9	8	3	2	1	38	13
1961–62			25	6	9	4	10	2	44	12
1962–63			25	7	4	1	2	1	31	9
1963–64			24	12	2	0	9	3	35	15
1964–65			23	4	3	0	6	5	32	9
1965–66			28	10	3	3	9	3	40	15
1966–67			20	11	5	0	4	0	29	11
1967–68			24	8	0	0	7	5	31	13
1968–69			26	8	2	1	2	0	30	9
1969–70			25	3	5	1	3	2	33	6
1970–71			7	0	2	0	6	0	15	0
Total	Spain		428	128	74	22	95	30	606	178
Career total			438	130	78	22	95	30	620	180

^[3]

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	14 October 1959	Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain	Poland	3–0	3–0	1960 European Nations' Cup qualifying
2.	2 April 1961	Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain	France	2–0	2–0	International Friendly
3.	30 October 1963	Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	0–1	0–1	1964 European Nations' Cup qualifying
4.	23 June 1966	Riazor, A Coruña, Spain	Uruguay	1–1	1–1	International Friendly
5.	31 May 1967	San Mamés, Bilbao, Spain	Turkey	2–0	2–0	UEFA Euro 1968 qualifying

Honours

Real Madrid

• La Liga (12): 1953–54, 1954–55, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1960–61, 1961–62, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69
• Copa del Rey (2): 1961–62, 1969–70
• European Cup (6): 1955–56, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1958–59, 1959–60, 1965–66
• Intercontinental Cup (1): 1960
• Latin Cup (2): 1955, 1957

Individual

• World Soccer World XI: 1960, 1961, 1962^[4]
• Golden Foot Legends Award: 2004^[5]
• World Soccer: The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time

References

1. "Full-throttle Paco, Real's winning legend". FIFA.com. Retrieved 23 September 2015.
2. "Francisco “Paco” Gento" (in Italian). Retrieved 23 September 2015.
3. http://www.elaguanis.com/index.php/jugadores?task=view&id=3878
4. "ERIC BATTY’S WORLD XI – THE SIXTIES" Retrieved on 29 November 2015
5. "Legends". Golden Foot. Retrieved 23 September 2015.

External links

• Francisco Gento at Real Madrid (English) (Spanish)
• Francisco Gento – FIFA competition record
• Gento, the only player ever to win six European Cups
• Biography at Real Madrid Fans (Spanish)
• BDFutbol profile
• National team data (Spanish)
• Francisco Gento at National-Football-Teams.com
• International Appearances and Goals at RSSSF
• Goals in European Cups at RSSSF