Eugenio Leal

Eugenio Leal
Personal information
Full name Eugenio Leal Vargas
Date of birth (1954-05-13) 13 May 1954
Place of birth Carriches, Spain
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position Midfielder
Youth career
La Salle
Atlético Madrid
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1971–1982 Atlético Madrid 185 (24)
1973–1974 → Sporting Gijón (loan) 23 (4)
1983 Sabadell 2 (0)
Total 210 (28)
National team
1970–1971 Spain U18 8 (0)
1973–1976 Spain amateur 3 (0)
1977–1978 Spain 13 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Eugenio Leal Vargas (born 13 May 1954) is a retired Spanish footballer who played as a midfielder.

He spent most of his 12-year professional career with Atlético Madrid, appearing in more than 230 competitive games and winning two La Liga championships.

A Spain international for one year, Leal represented the country at the 1978 World Cup.

Club career

Born in Carriches, Province of Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha, Leal finished his youth career with Atlético Madrid. After alternating between the first team and the amateur reserves to start with, he was loaned to fellow La Liga team Sporting de Gijón, returning to the Vicente Calderón Stadium late into the 1973–74 season to play the Copa del Rey as the foreign players were not eligible for the tournament; he started playing football as a forward, but manager and former teammate Luis Aragonés reconverted him in a midfielder.[1]

In a derby against Real Madrid in 1979, Leal suffered a knee ligament injury following a challenge from Juan Sol from which he never fully recovered. He left the Colchoneros in June 1982 after only a combined eight games in two years and, after a few months at CE Sabadell FC to help them prevent relegation from Segunda División, which eventually did not befell, he retired at the age of 29.[1]

Leal helped Atlético to the 1973 and 1977 domestic leagues, contributing with a total of 42 matches and four goals to the achievements.[2][3][4][5] After retiring, he settled in Granada and worked as a stockbroker.[1]

International career

Leal earned the first of his 13 caps for Spain on 16 April 1977, in a 0–1 away loss against Romania for the 1978 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.[6] Six months later, in the same phase and facing the same opponent, he scored in the 2–0 win in Madrid.[7]

Selected to the finals in Argentina by coach László Kubala, Leal featured in three games in an eventual group stage exit.[8]

International goals

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.26 October 1977Vicente Calderón, Madrid, Spain Romania1–02–01978 World Cup qualification[7]

Honours

Atlético Madrid

References

  1. 1 2 3 "El 'Cheli', carisma en rojo y blanco" ['Cheli', charisma in red and white] (PDF). Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 16 November 2004. Retrieved 8 January 2011.
  2. ↑ "2–1: El Atlético, mal; el Betis, peor" [2–1: Atlético, bad, Betis, worse]. Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 18 September 1972. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  3. ↑ "3–1: El Barcelona no supo frenar al Atlético" [3–1: Barcelona could not stop Atlético]. Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 25 October 1976. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  4. ↑ "Valencia, 2 – At. Madrid, 3". Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 10 January 1977. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  5. ↑ "5–1: Goleada del Atlético al Elche" [5–1: Atlético routing of Elche]. Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 7 March 1977. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  6. ↑ "1–0: Mal la selección y mal el resultado" [1–0: Bad national team and bad result]. Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 17 April 1977. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  7. 1 2 "2–0: España sudó pero ganó bien" [2–0: Spain broke a sweat but won fairly]. Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 27 October 1977. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  8. ↑ "0–0: En pies de Cardeñosa estuvo el triunfo español" [0–0: Cardeñosa had Spain win in his feet]. Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 8 June 1978. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
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