This coach for a long time was considered just goodspecialist, but almost the last chord in his career has taken him to the category of great. After all, it was he who transformed the eternal favorite and the same eternal loser - the Spanish national team - into a formidable and invincible force that first conquered Europe, and then the rest of the world.
Jose Luis Aragonés Suárez was born on July 28, 1938year in the capital of Spain, in the Ortales region, which was considered a business district. Closer than before any Madrid club, from Ortales was to reach the suburbs - Getafe, which was the first refuge of Luis Aragones in the club career. Less than a year of performances for the club from Getafe, as he picked up the breeders of Madrid "Real" and invited to his team. The transition took place in 1958, but the twenty-year-old did not play as a basis for "cream". He was constantly in rent in other clubs, having traveled a fairly large number of cities. In addition to the double of the Royal Club, he played in Huelva, Alicante, and Oviedo. It was as a player of "Oviedo" that he played the first match in the highest league of Spanish football. After three years of wanderings on leases, Luis Aragones from 1961 finally stably played for the team from Seville, "Real Betis", for which he spent three full seasons.
In 1964, Luis Aragones found his team. It was the second metropolitan team - "Atletico". It is with this club that the greatest successes of Aragones-player and Aragones-coach at the club level will be linked. In the history of "mattresses" (the nickname of the club "Atlético" (Madrid) is associated with the coloring of T-shirts in red and white stripes), this striker entered a good organizer and an excellent end to the attacks. For 360 matches in the highest Spanish league he scored 161 goals.
Some believe that Luis Aragones in his youthwas underestimated by the breeders of Madrid "Real". After all, it was very difficult for a young guy to compete with such pillars of the attack of the best European team of the time, like Alfredo di Stefano or Ferenc Puskas. But the strength of the player Luis Aragoness can be judged from the fact that he was summoned to the national team for seven years only for eleven matches, in which he scored three goals.
The 1974/75 season, Luis Aragones began inas a player "mattress". But after playing a few games at the beginning of the season, he decided to complete an active career player in the thirty-seventh year of life. From the tenth round of the season in the Madrid team, "Atlético" has a new football coach.
In 1981, Luis Aragonés surfaced in his firstpermanent club - Sevilla "Real Betis" - as a player. But after playing and losing the first match, he was forced to leave this team. Next year, he again returns to Madrid as coach of "Atletico". This time for an incomplete five years the team wins the cup and the Spanish Super Cup and goes to the Cup Winners' Cup final. The subsequent victories did not follow, and Luis Aragones left the Madrid club after the contract for the sake of working with "Barcelona". In the debut season the Catalan team wins in the Spanish Cup, but the champion does not become and the coach is forced to leave this club. After a year of downtime, Luis Aragones, football coach, takes another Barcelona club - "Espanyol", but with him works out practically to no avail.
The way of Luis Aragoness to coaching in the nationalthe national team began with a criticism of the acting coach at the time - Inaki Saes. And after another failure of the Spanish team at the European Championships in 2004, he accepted the invitation of the local federation to lead the country's main team. By the time Luis Aragones has already received the nickname "sage from Ortales" when he was his coach, "Atlético" (Madrid). The first match as a coach was victorious, but this victory 3: 2 was harder given to the stronger Spaniards over the modest team of Venezuela. Going to the 2006 World Cup without a single defeat under the leadership of the sage from Ortales, the Spanish team was once again considered one of the favorites. And again I lost. The first match "for the start" brought defeat 1: 3 from the French team. Aragones is already going to leave the national team, but in the Spanish Football Federation decided to extend the contract with this outstanding specialist until the end of the next European Championship in 2008. After that, Luis Aragones took up the job with renewed vigor, making a bet on the new - young players, getting rid of the long-standing "idols" of Spanish fans.
At the end of the European Championship Luis Aragonesdecided not to renew the contract with the Spanish team. In his place was invited Vicente del Bosque, who led the Spaniards to triumph at the 2010 World Championships and the next European Championships in 2012. But he took advantage of the foundation laid by his predecessor. And the European champion for the first time in his life left the borders of Spain in order to train the Turkish "Fenerbahce". This season of 2008/09 was the last for him as a coach. After the end of his active career, he still received the "Grand Royal Cross" in 2002 for achievements in sports and became the owner of the trophy "Legend" according to the most famous football newspaper in Spain. So goodbye to great football Luis Aragones.