Sebastián Ontoria

Sebastián Ontoria
Personal information
Full name Sebastián Ontoria Escolaza
Date of birth (1920-01-20)20 January 1920
Place of birth San Sebastián, Spain
Date of death 12 August 2004(2004-08-12) (aged 84)
Place of death San Sebastián, Spain
Height 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Playing position Midfielder
Youth career
Amara
Lagun Artea
Sporting Rentería
Vasconia
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1939–1940 Casetas
1940–1941 Zaragoza 7 (0)
1941–1955 Real Sociedad 275 (67)
1955–1956 Indautxu 25 (5)
1956–1957 Barakaldo 16 (4)
Total 323 (76)
National team
1949 Spain B 1 (1)
1950 Spain 1 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Ontoria and the second or maternal family name is Escolaza.

Sebastián Ontoria Escolaza (20 January 1920 – 12 August 2004) was a Spanish footballer who played as a midfielder.

He amassed La Liga totals of 213 games and 41 goals during 11 seasons, with Zaragoza and Real Sociedad.

Club career

Born in San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Ontoria kickstarted his professional career with Real Zaragoza,[1][2] appearing in only seven La Liga matches in his first two seasons combined and being relegated in the second. He then signed with his hometown club Real Sociedad after returning from his exile due to the Spanish Civil War,[3] meeting the same fate in 1942, 1944 and 1948.

Ontoria started playing as a forward, but coach Benito Díaz eventually reconverted him into a midfielder whilst naming him team captain. During his 14-year spell at the Atotxa Stadium, he scored 114 goals across all competitions in 374 games, also reaching the final of the 1951 Copa del Generalísimo, lost to FC Barcelona.[3]

Ontoria retired in 1957 at the age of 37, after one-year Segunda División stints with SD Indautxu and Barakaldo CF. He died in San Sebastián on 12 August 2004, aged 84.[4]

International career

Ontoria earned one cap for Spain: on 9 April 1950, he helped to a 2–2 away draw to Portugal for the 1950 FIFA World Cup qualifiers,[5] that after the 5–1 win in Madrid earned the nation a ticket to the finals in Brazil.

Personal life

At the end of the Civil War, Ontoria was captured and imprisoned in a concentration camp in Zaragoza for two years, after enlisting in the Larrañaga communist battalion in the Basque army, in the early days of the uprising.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "El Zaragoza parte para Madrid con bajas..." [Zaragoza leaves for Madrid undermanned...] (PDF) (in Spanish). Mundo Deportivo. 2 March 1940. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  2. ↑ "Ontoria retenido" [Ontoria retained] (in Spanish). Mundo Deportivo. 20 July 1941. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "El ojito derecho de Benito Díaz" [Benito Díaz's sidekick] (in Spanish). Mundo Deportivo. 31 July 2009. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  4. ↑ "Falleció el ex jugador realista Sebastián Ontoria" [Former Real player Sebastián Ontoria died] (in Spanish). Mundo Deportivo. 13 August 2004. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
  5. ↑ "Portugal, 2 – España, 2" [Portugal, 2 – Spain, 2] (in Spanish). Mundo Deportivo. 10 April 1950. Retrieved 8 March 2016.
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