Telmo Zarra

Early career

Zarra signed his first professional contract with SD Erandio Club of the Second Division, and was incorporated into team during the 1937–38 season. Later he was recruited to a team from Biscay to play a friendly match against a team assembled from Guipuzcoa, during which Zarra scored seven goals in a 9–0 win. Around this time, Athletic Bilbao was looking for players to rebuild the team, which had been disbanded years before in the chaos caused by the Civil War. The team began recruiting young, promising players from Erandio for their team for the 1940–41 season.

Professional stage and early successes

Zarra debuted with Athletic Club on 29 September 1940, in a league match against Valencia CF. The game ended in a 2–2 draw, with Zarraonandía scoring both goals for his team (including his first league goal, scored 17 minutes into the game). During the 1941–42 season Zarra temporarily left Athletic Bilbao to join the army. He was dispatched to Ceuta, and played some friendly matches with the team there. Upon his return to Bilbao, Zarra experienced one of the biggest disappointments of his career while playing in the final of the Copa del Rey against Barcelona. They had reached the end of normal time and neither team had managed to score. During extra time, Zarra had an opportunity to score against rival goalkeeper Miró, but he missed the shot; consequently, Barça won the match and Cup.

The 1942–43 campaign was one of the most important for both…

Club

International

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

Zarra was born on 20 January 1921 at the Asúa train station in Erandio, Biscay. He was the son of Telmo Zarraonandía, an engineer and head of Asúa station, and Tomasa Montoya. Zarra was the seventh of ten children, five of them boys. The family was of Romani descent. When he was young, Zarra used to play football with his neighbours. While other children had homemade or improvised balls, Zarra had access to a real ball, as two of his brothers played football in La Liga with Arenas de Getxo: Tomás, a goalkeeper and the oldest sibling, and Domingo, who died during the Spanish Civil War. His father did not like Zarra playing football, because "it was enough with two brothers in the practice of this game." But Zarra liked the sport and began playing for several local teams, including Asia and Pitoberese. At that time, he was nicknamed "Telmito the fearful", as he would play cautiously, being ashamed and self-conscious of his skill.

Athletic Bilbao

La Liga: 1942–43 Copa del Rey: 1943, 1944, 1944–45, 1949–50, 1955 Copa Eva Duarte: 1950 Individual

Pichichi Trophy: 1944–45, 1945–46, 1946–47, 1949–50, 1950–51, 1952–53 Golden Pichichi Trophy: 2003 Decorations

Royal Order of Sports Merit Shiny gold badge of Málaga CF Silver botafumeiro of Deportivo de La Coruña Posthumous dedications

Zarra Trophy Memorial bust at Lezama training centre Records

Spanish top scorer in the history of La Liga (251) Spanish player with the most goals in a single La Liga season (38) Spanish player with the most top scorer awards in La Liga history (6) Spanish player with the most hat tricks in La Liga history (23) Top scorer in the history of Copa del Rey (81 goals) Top scorer in the history of Athletic Bilbao (335 goals) Most goals in a Copa del Rey Final (4 – 1950) Top scorer in El Viejo Clásico vs Real Madrid (22) Top scorer in the Basque derby vs Real Sociedad (14)