Santillana

Born in Santillana del Mar, Cantabria, Santillana (his nickname taken from his birthplace) started playing professionally with local Racing de Santander. He moved to Real Madrid and La Liga in 1971 alongside teammate Francisco Aguilar, aged just 19, and scored ten goals in 34 games in his debut season as the team were crowned league champions. Santillana went on to win nine league titles, four Copa del Reys and two consecutive UEFA Cups, scoring in both finals. He played 645 first-team matches – a record which stood until Manolo Sanchís surpassed him during the 1997–98 campaign – and scored 290 goals; the eighth-highest all-time scorer in the first division, with 186 goals in 461 appearances, he never won the Pichichi Trophy. After just 12 league appearances in 1987–88, in which he scored four times, Santillana retired from football at the age of 35, finding the net in a 2–1 home win against Real Valladolid. Madrid won three titles in a row in his final three seasons.

Santillana possessed stellar heading skills despite not reaching 1.80 m, courtesy of his jumping ability, and was widely regarded as one of the best strikers in the history of Spanish football.

Club

International

Scores and results list Spain's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Santillana goal.

Santillana played 56 times and scored 15 goals for the Spain national team, his debut being on 17 April 1975 in a 1–1 draw with Romania for the UEFA Euro 1976 qualifiers held in Madrid. He represented his country in the 1978 and 1982 FIFA World Cups, as well as three European Championships: 1976, reaching the quarter-finals, 1980, failing to advance to the second round, and 1984 which ended with a runner-up finish to hosts France, with the player coming close to scoring the opener on a header saved just off the line by Luis Fernández. On 21 December 1983, during a European Championship qualifying match against Malta that had to be won by 11 goals, Santillana scored a hat-trick in the first half and added a fourth in the second period, as Spain won 12–1 and qualified at the expense of the Netherlands.