Juan Manuel Asensi

Juan Manuel Asensi Ripoll (born 23 September 1949) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Asensi and the second or maternal family name is Ripoll.

Juan Manuel Asensi
Asensi in 1973
Personal information
Full name Juan Manuel Asensi Ripoll
Date of birth (1949-09-23) 23 September 1949
Place of birth Alicante, Spain
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
Elche
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1966–1967 Ilicitano
1967–1970 Elche 80 (23)
1970–1980 Barcelona 299 (74)
1980–1982 Puebla 69 (19)
1982–1983 Oaxtepec 29 (0)
Total 477 (116)
National team
1967–1968 Spain U18 4 (2)
1969–1971 Spain U23 8 (1)
1967–1971 Spain amateur 9 (2)
1969–1980 Spain 41 (7)
Teams managed
1992–1995 Barcelona (youth)
2002 Orihuela
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

Born in Alicante, Valencian Community, Asensi began his career at local Elche CF – at the time in La Liga – before joining FC Barcelona in 1970, for 80 million pesetas. During his time at the club, he was instrumental in helping the Catalans win the league in 1974 (34 matches, 11 goals, third-best in squad), also adding the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1979 and scoring in the final held in Basel.[1]

After only ten matches in the 1980–81 season, but 484 competitive appearances with 124 goals, 32-year-old Asensi moved to Mexico where he would play until his retirement in 1983.[2] He had two brief spells at coaching, with Barcelona's youth sides and lowly Orihuela CF.[3]

International career

Asensi represented Spain 41 times, scoring seven goals. His debut came on 23 February 1969 in a 1–2 loss against Belgium for the 1970 FIFA World Cup qualification, as the country did not make it to the final stages.[4]

Asensi was picked for the squads at the 1978 World Cup and UEFA Euro 1980 – his last international was played in the latter competition, also against Belgium (and also 1–2 defeat) – and also competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics.[5]

International goals
#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.23 February 1969Sclessin, Liège, Belgium Belgium2–12–11970 World Cup qualification
2.11 October 1972Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain Argentina1–01–0Friendly
3.19 October 1972Insular, Las Palmas, Spain Yugoslavia2–22–21974 World Cup qualification
4.23 February 1974Sarrià, Barcelona, Spain West Germany1–01–0Friendly
5.11 June 1978José Amalfitani, Buenos Aires, Argentina Sweden1–01–01978 FIFA World Cup
6.15 November 1978Luis Casanova, Valencia, Spain Romania1–01–0Euro 1980 qualifying
7.13 December 1978Helmántico, Salamanca, Spain Cyprus1–05–0Euro 1980 qualifying

Post-retirement

In 1984, Asensi co-founded the TARR football school in Barcelona with fellow ex-players Carles Rexach, Joaquim Rifé and Antoni Torres.[6]

Honours

Barcelona

References
  1. "1978/79: Barcelona win seven-goal thriller". UEFA. 1 June 1979. Archived from the original on 3 May 2010. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  2. "Equipo Puebla 1980–81" [Puebla team 1980–81] (in Spanish). Puebla80s Blogspot. May 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
  3. "Esteban and Asensi, técnicos" [Esteban and Asensi, managers] (PDF). Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 22 July 1991. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
  4. "Juan Manuel Asensi – International Appearances". RSSSF. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  5. "Asensi". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
  6. "Qué fue de... Asensi" [What happened to... Asensi] (in Spanish). Cadena SER. 3 September 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.