Alfonso Aparicio

Club Aviación Nacional

Two years later, in the middle of the war, Aparicio was transferred to Zaragoza, where he met Ensign Francisco Salamanca, who was recruiting men for the project of forming a football team for the soldiers to entertain themselves on their days off: the Club Aviación Nacional. Once the conflict was over, Atlético Madrid avoided disappearance by merging with Club Aviación, where Aparicio had been playing since its formation in 1937. In this way he became a First Division footballer when the championships resumed. Aparicio quickly established himself as an undisputed starter under coach Ricardo Zamora, who placed him as a central defender, making him the first football player in Spain to play in that specific position. He formed a great defensive partnership with José Mesa, one of the most solid in the club's history, which played a crucial role in Athletic's historic 1939–40 season, in which the club won the 1939 Campeonato Mancomunado Centro and the 1939–40 La Liga. He later formed a defensive trio with José Luis Riera and Alfonso Silva, which went down in history both at Atlético and in Spanish football as the so-called "Iron Curtain".

Atlético Madrid

Aparicio helped Athletic win the 1941–47 FEF President Cup, the longest tournament in the history of Spanish football, playing in all of Athletic's five matches in 1941 and also in the postponed match against Valencia CF in 1947, in which he kept a clean-sheet in a 4–0 win, thus being the…

Aparicio was born in Santander, Cantabria, on 14 August 1919. At the age of eight he witnessed his first match, and since then he has not missed a single match played by Racing, the main team from his native Santander. At the Colegio de los Jesuitas in Orduña, he met and played with Lucio del Álamo, who would later come to play for Athletic Bilbao. Like so many other young people from Santander, he played football on the beach of Sardinero or under the discipline of very modest local societies, such as Daring Club, Magdalena, and Juventud Sport. His passion for the sport was such that at Unión Juventud de Santander, he even paid to play, but his sint there was cut short by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, with the then 17-year-old Aparicio enlisting as a volunteer in Aviation Corps. He was enrolled as a replacement soldier in 1940 in the Automobile Regiment until 20 May 1942, when he was discharged.

Club Aviación Nacional La Liga: 1939–40, 1940–41 Copa de los Campeones de España: 1940 Atlético Madrid La Liga: 1949–50, 1950–51 Copa Eva Duarte: 1951