Luis Aragonés

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Aragonés made his international debut for Spain on 8 May 1965 in a 0–0 friendly draw away to Scotland. The first of his three goals for Spain was in a friendly against France in Lyon, in a 3–1 win on his seventh cap on 17 October 1968. He captained the side for the sole time on his 10th of 11 caps, a 3–0 win over Northern Ireland in Seville on 11 November 1970 in qualification for UEFA Euro 1972, and scored in the match. Decades later, he took over the national team after UEFA Euro 2004. He dropped experienced players such as Míchel Salgado and Raúl and revamped with new blood. Spain were unbeaten in qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, finishing as group runner-up to Serbia and Montenegro, then winning a play-off against Slovakia 6–2 on aggregate. At the finals, Spain won all three group games before losing 3–1 to France in the Second Round. Realizing the physical weakness of Spanish players, he employed tiki-taka, a system of short passing which became the biggest football revolution in the history of Spanish football.

In Their Own Story

After a poor start to Euro 2008 qualifying with defeats to Northern Ireland and Sweden, Spain recovered strongly to seal a ticket as group winners ahead of Sweden. Aragonés then presided over Spain's victorious campaign at Euro 2008, beating Germany 1–0 in the final with a goal from Fernando Torres for their first international honour since 1964. Aragonés had a superstitious fear of the colour yellow, and referred to Spain's change kit for the semi-final match against Russia as 'mustard' and not 'yellow'.

Reader's Guide

Aragonés made his international debut for Spain on 8 May 1965 in a 0–0 friendly draw away to Scotland. He scored his first of three goals for Spain in a friendly against France in Lyon, in a 3–1 win on his seventh cap on 17 October 1968. He captained the side for the sole time on his 10th of 11 caps, a 3–0 win over Northern Ireland in Seville on 11 November 1970 in qualification for UEFA Euro 1972, and scored in the match. As manager, he took over after UEFA Euro 2004. He dropped experienced players such as Míchel Salgado and Raúl and revamped with new blood. Spain were unbeaten in qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, finishing as group runner-up to Serbia and Montenegro, then winning a play-off against Slovakia 6–2 on aggregate. At the finals, Spain won all three group games before losing 3–1 to France in the Second Round. He employed tiki-taka, a system of short passing which became the biggest football revolution in the history of Spanish football. He then presided over Spain's victorious campaign at Euro 2008, beating Germany 1–0 in the final with a goal from Fernando Torres for their first international honour since 1964.

Did You Know?

• Aragonés made his international debut for Spain on 8 May 1965 in a 0–0 friendly draw away to Scotland.
• He captained Spain for the only time on his 10th cap, a 3–0 win over Northern Ireland in Seville on 11 November 1970, and scored in the match.
• As manager, he employed tiki-taka, a system of short passing which became the biggest football revolution in the history of Spanish football.
• He had a superstitious fear of the colour yellow, and referred to Spain's change kit for the Euro 2008 semi-final against Russia as 'mustard'.
• He led Spain to their second European Championship title in 2008, beating Germany 1–0 in the final with a goal from Fernando Torres.