Francisco Gento

Paco Gento

Gento with Real Madrid in 1967
Personal information
Full name	Francisco Gento López
Date of birth	(1933-10-21) 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

Paco Gento in 1965

Gento, Leo Horn, Alfredo Di Stéfano and Faas Wilkes in 1959

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.

Following the death of Alfredo Di Stéfano, Gento was appointed as the Honorary President of Real Madrid.^[1]

Career

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 European final appearance in the 1970–1971 Cup Winners' Cup final that Real Madrid lost to Chelsea). He holds this record jointly with 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's two younger brothers, Julio (1939–2016) and Antonio (born 1940) also played football professionally; the latter played for Real Madrid, too, 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.^[2][3]

Career statistics

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 before the 1966 European Cup Final against FK Partizan

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
• IFFHS Legends^[6]

Records

• Most La Liga titles: 12
• Most European Cup titles: 6

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Francisco Gento.

• Francisco Gento – FIFA competition record (archive)
• Francisco Gento at BDFutbol
• Francisco Gento at National-Football-Teams.com
• Francisco Gento at Real Madrid (in English) (in Spanish)
• Biography at Real Madrid Fans (in Spanish)
• National team data (in Spanish)
• International Appearances and Goals at RSSSF
• Goals in European Cups at RSSSF