José Berraondo

Berraondo was introduced to football during his time as a student in England. Apparently, he got to play in the first team of Brentford during this period. At the age of 26, Berraondo returned to Spain and settled in Madrid, where he decided to continue his love of football and joined the city's main club, Madrid FC (now Real Madrid), in 1904. Despite the presence of the likes of Yarza, Prast, Parages and even Armando Giralt, it was Berraondo who, just one year after joining the team, became the captain of Madrid FC in 1905. No one disputed this decision in a time when the captain had the duty of dictating the tactics to be followed and making up the line-ups as there were still no professional coaches in Spain's football, thus basically serving as a player-coach. Under his captaincy, Madrid won 4 Copa del Rey titles in a row between 1905 and 1908 and as many regional championships with the white club. Berraondo played an important role in the first great team in the history of Real Madrid since he was able to pass on to his teammates the knowledge that he had acquired in England about football. In 1909 he decided to go live in his hometown, whose local team at the time was Club Ciclista de San Sebastián, which had just won the 1909 Copa del Rey, being the first time in 5 years that a team other than Madrid won the competition. A few months after this victory, Berraondo, along with the players who had won the tournament, founded the Sociedad de Football (now known as Real…

While at Madrid FC, he held a position on the board during the presidency of General Adolfo Meléndez (1908–10). Despite still being a player and captain of the squad he was elected vice president. In fact, in the absence of Meléndez, who was a professional soldier and had to go to the Melilla War, Berraondo held the interim presidency of Madrid FC for a few months. His departure in 1909 to live in San Sebastián forced him to resign from these functions and he was subsequently relieved of the vice-presidency of the club, a position that he carried out with great honor. Also in 1909, he participated in the foundation of Real Sociedad, of which he was a member of the first board of directors, also holding the position of vice president for a few years, while also serving as player and captain of the team. Berraondo also took part in the founding of the Spanish Football Federation in 1913 and the Guipuzcoan Football Federation and held various positions in the organization chart of these federations. He was proposed for President of the Guipuzcoan Football Federation in 1923, but did not accept the position.

Berraondo was still an active player when he refereed his first match, a preliminary round in the 1911 Copa del Rey between Bilbao FC and Academia de Artillería. He had to wait five years to oversee another competitive match, but the wait was worth it because this time it was a much more important match, both literally and historically: The semifinals of the 1916 Copa del Rey between Madrid CF and FC Barcelona, the first-ever El Clásico in the competition's history. After both teams won their respective home leg, Berraondo was selected as the referee of the replay match, in which Berraondo made several highly controversial decisions in favour of his former club, such as disallowing a goal from Barça scored by Paulino Alcántara and giving three penalties to Madrid, the first two were saved by Barça's goalkeeper Luis Bru, but the third, the only one that was not discussed, was converted by Santiago Bernabéu in the 118th minute to seal a thrilling 6–6 draw, thus forcing another replay, which was also refereed by Berraondo, who again made several questionable decisions, such as giving yet another last-minute penalty with the score tied at 2, but Bru saved that one as well to force extra-time, in which Sotero Aranguren scored twice, although the Barcelona players protested that the Madrid attackers had grabbed Bru in the second goal, but Berraondo ignored and Barcelona withdrew in protest. At the end of the match, the public strongly protested Berraondo's performance, and in the…

Berraondo also devoted himself professionally to sports journalism as a sports editor of El País Vasco and editor of the newspaper La Noticia. While still at Madrid FC, in the "Heraldo de Madrid", Berraondo published some delicious chronicles about the qualities, training, defects and virtues of each of the players' positions. Ways to defend a corner, speed tests and specific training for goalkeepers.