“The biggest winner in the history of the Champions League is left winger Francisco ‘Paco’ Gento: six times. A living legend of Real Madrid (84 years old), he was in the champion squads from 1956 to 1960 and in 1966. all finals, scored a goal in two of them [1957 e 1958] and in 1966 he was captain of the team.”
In this way I, then sent from the leaf to Ukraine, I finished a text written on May 26, 2018, the date of the European Champions League decision between Real Madrid and Liverpool, in Kiev.
The match ended with a 3-1 victory for the Madrid club, which won its 13th title in the competition founded in 1955 and whose inaugural edition ended in 1956.
Gento was in almost half of these conquests.
To win the sixth Champions League title, he and his teammates beat Frenchman Stade Reims (twice), Italy’s Fiorentina and Milan, Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt and Yugoslavian Partizan Belgrade.
Considered one of the best players in Real’s history, he died this Tuesday (18), aged 88, in his sleep.
“Real Madrid wishes to express its condolences and its love and affection to his wife Mari Luz, his children Francisco and Julio, his granddaughters Aitana and Candela, and to all his relatives, colleagues and loved ones. madridistas and by all football fans as one of the biggest”, the club wrote in a statement.
Despite not being one of the biggest at the time (some sites mention 1.68 m, others 1.71 m), Gento was, indeed, a giant in the field.
He defended Real from 1953 to 1971 and also won, in addition to six Champions Leagues, 12 Spanish Championships, two Copa del Rey and an Intercontinental Cup, among other titles.
He scored 182 goals with the merengue shirt and is the club’s eighth top scorer, in a list led by Cristiano Ronaldo and which includes Raúl, Di Stéfano, Benzema and Puskás.
In addition, being the footballer who has won the most in the Champions League, he is equal to none other than Pelé as the most laureate in a glorious competition, possibly the most coveted among interclub tournaments.
The football king triumphed three times in the World Cup with the Brazilian team (1958, 1962 and 1960). Only Pelé is a three-time champion as an athlete.
Gento defended the Spanish national team 43 times, from 1955 to 1969, and was at the World Cups in Chile (1962) and England (1966).
He couldn’t play against Pele in 1962 because Brazil’s number 10 did not play against Spain –or in any other World Cup game after that– due to an injury in the previous confrontation, against Czechoslovakia.
Pele, however, remembered Gento and paid tribute to the Spaniard in an Instagram post.
“Paco Gento is another football genius who says goodbye to us. The greatest European champion to date. I was still a boy when we faced him [sic] and other Real Madrid legends at the Santiago Bernabéu on a tour of Europe,” he wrote.
“Memories of much nostalgia and passion for football, which are even more alive today. I leave here my feelings of affection to all friends and family.”
Pelé was 18 years old on June 17, 1959, when Real Madrid and Santos played a friendly at the Spanish team’s stadium.
The São Paulo team lost 5-3. Pelé scored the first goal of the game, and Gento, the last.
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