Patricio Escobal

In 1920, combining his studies in industrial engineering, he signed for Real Madrid, making his debut in Porto at the age of 18, and playing for the team until 1927, when he was diagnosed with an illness that ended his time as a Madrid player. He was advised to stop actively playing sports and although he remained linked to Madrid as an equipier, he continued playing football for Racing de Madrid, but when Racing withdrew from the championship, he joined CD Nacional de Madrid, and after a short-lived stint there, he finally returned to Real for the 1930–31 season. During his decade in Madrid, Escobal formed a famous and elegant defensive partnership with Félix Quesada, one of the most regular and efficient couples in the history of Real Madrid. It was said that Escobal took street girls for being handsome, cultured and elegant. Eventually, he earned the respect of sports critics, who nicknamed him "the Fakir". Escobal became captain of the Madrid team, as well as a regular participant in Madrid national team matches against foreign clubs. Likewise, he was present at all the great events that involved Real Madrid, such as at the inauguration of the Campo del Hipódromo. Following a three-year hiatus, Escobal returned to the active practice of football in his hometown Logroño, where he played for a season and a half, forming a defensive pair with Recarte. On 2 September 1934, he played his last game as an active player and then he left football to dedicate himself entirely to…

Escobal was a member of the Spanish football squad that competed in the 1924 Summer Olympics, but he did not play in any matches as Spain was knockout by Italy.

Perico was a young man with deep political concerns, affiliated with the Republican Left. He firmly believed that Spain would soon experience a period of great prosperity, but things went wrong and the hatred between the political factions soon acquired a dark, almost solid consistency, so Escobal sought refuge in his native Logroño where he took a position as an engineer in the City Council, married Teresa Castroviejo, daughter of a well-known dental professional in Logroño, and played in the local football club, which had just inaugurated the Las Gaunas field. He hung up his boots in 1934 to dedicate himself entirely to engineering, but he was able to keep his job as an engineer in the City Council for only four months since he was unjustly dispossessed in September 1934. Escobal then earned the dislike of the opposing sector of the Rioja political forces, as he fought for his place with the same intensity that he exhibited on the football fields, but that fight earned him his death in prison. Then with the electoral victory of the Popular Front, on 14 September 1936, he was reinstated in his position and compensated for unfair dismissal.

Patricio Escobal was born on 24 August 1903 in Logroño to a Biscayan father from Galdames and a La Rioja mother from Nalda. He grew up among books and balls dreaming of one day being an engineer in the metropolitan area. He began his studies in his native Logroño, where he attended the first two years of high school, but then he moved to the capital, where he studied at Colegio de Chamartín and later graduated as an engineer while also excelling in football as a youth player at Colegio del Pilar.