Manuel Amechazurra

Early years

Born in La Carlota, Negros Occidental, Philippines, his family took him and brought him in Spain, in 1892, when he was still a kid. After his move and after he settled in Barcelona as a young man, he began playing football at his local club FC Irish in 1902. In Irish, Amechazurra stood out as an extraordinary defender, which earned him a move to FC Barcelona in 1906. Just after two years at Barça, he moved to England in 1908 where he played for several clubs such as St. Boniface's College and Stoke Chuchife. In England, he learned the most modern techniques and tactics, which he transported back to Barcelona when he returned in 1909.

Return to Barcelona

He played at FC Barcelona until 1915, almost a whole decade with the brief exception of his travels around the world (Philippines, Japan etc.) which made him known among his colleagues with the nickname of "El Aventurero" (the Adventurer). He formed a great defensive partnership with José Irízar. Together with Carles Comamala, Amechazurra was the fundamental head behind piece in Barcelona's first great team, which also had the likes of Paco Bru, Alfredo Massana, the Wallace brothers (Charles and Percy), Pepe Rodríguez and Barcelona's second all-time leading goal-scorer and countryman Paulino Alcántara, but it was Amechazurra who was named the team's captain. No one disputed this decision in a time when the captain had the duty of dictating the tactics to be followed (since the coach as we know…

Like many other FC Barcelona players of his time, he played several matches for the Catalan national team in the early 1910s, being one of the eleven footballers who played in the team's first-ever game recognized by FIFA on 20 February 1912, which ended in a 0–7 loss to France.

Amecha, briefly, coached the Philippines National Football Team in the sixth edition of the Far Eastern Games in Osaka, in 1923. His team was influenced by the absence of several players and had to rely on some junior division players, all college students aged 16 to 18. Prior to the Far East Games he and the team had beaten a British/Spanish selection with a 2-0 win result in Manila. Amecha's first game at the tournament begun with a 0-3 loss, against Filipinos' rivals China, which saw a brawl break out leading to a full-scale battle and members of the crowd were also involved. The two sides, however, agreed to finish the game after the police managed to restore order. The next game against Japan did not start as Amecha hoped, as his team conceaded after 5 minutes, despite the rough start, the Filipinos were able to turn it around in the last minutes of the game, resulting in a 2-1 victory and a silver medal for Amecha and his team.

Amechazurra also took the role of a referee during his football career. He, also, was the administrator of the Colegio de Árbitros and the last match he refereed in Spain was in 1916. His most notorious game, was the match between the Philippines and China at the 1934 Far Eastern Games in Manila, played at the newly constructed Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in front of 40.000 people and following a 2-hour Games opening ceremony. Amecha, however, knew he would've referred a game between two teams, whose rivalry started since the beginning of the tournament in 1913 and as it happened in the previous editions, especially in 1923 when he coached the Philippines, it was a rough and violent match. For the Chinese, Amechazurra judged the game as a "hometown" referee, him being born in the country, allowing some brutal fouls and not awarding them a penalty when Filipino defender Cirilo De Guzmán handled the ball. However, Amecha also disallowed a goal in favor of the Filipinos as it came from an assist pass after the ball had crossed the touchline and was out of play. After that it was a battlefield, as described by the newspapers later, between the sides and when it was over it saw six players come out with injuries including fractures (4 from China and 2 from the Philippines).