Real Madrid - La Liga: I played with... Juanito: He wanted to win, even seeing which lift would get

Real Madrid - La Liga Former teammates reveal all

He had Real Madrid in his veins, a unique talent for playing football.

He was limited by an indomitable character and generosity that he was unable to control.

"A phenomenon, on and off the field," is how Jesus Maria Zamora remembers Juan Gomez, known commoly as 'Juanito', who faced him when Real Sociedad clashed with Real Madrid and alongside him for Spain.

"On the field, one of the three best in Spain in my time and off it, even better.

"I give you an example so that people know how he behaved and everything he did so that players would come to the tribute to Javier Sagarzazu, it was incredible."

Juanito (Fuengirola, 10/11/1954; Calzada de Oropesa, 2/4/1992) is loved by all who knew him; his teammates, his rivals, the referees he tormented week after week.

He left dozens of images, an album of pure football and life, and in one of them he appears kneeling before Juan Andujar Oliver asking for mercy.

"He always called me a farmer," Andujar Oliver recalls.

"On the field he was a complainer, pious, annoying - that day I gave him a yellow and it was his fifth, what did I know!

"It wasn't like it is now, when you know everything, and besides, it was just a card.

"It meant that Jose Maria Garcia took me out because that night I got on his show, but I didn't want him to cross me with Juanito; he never forgave me.

"But my relationship with Juan, whom I refereed in Segunda with Burgos, was always excellent. He was a gentleman, with a lot of character, but a great person."

In the times of Burgos, Juanito met Miguel Angel Portugal, with whom he later coincided in Madrid.

"We were together for two years at Burgos and four at Madrid," Portugal remembers.

"As a player it was easy: spectacular, the best.

"He was different: competitive, winning, he didn't like to lose anything, not even the marbles, the cards...

"He even challenged you to guess which elevator was going up or arriving first, a born winner."

To understand what Juanito did on the pitch, there is no more authoritative voice than that of Santillana, his partner in crime in attack.

"Our relationship on the field was almost esoteric, there was almost no need to look at one another," Santillana explains.

"He would put in pinpoint crosses and I knew where the ball was going to go; Juan raised his head and I understood what he wanted; and when it came to set pieces, all you needed was a gesture, a sign with your eyes.

"We were a duo that made Real Madrid rock in important matches.

"If he hadn't lost his head over [Lothar] Matthaus and that stomp that year, he would have won the Ballon d'Or.

"How he was, how he played... But Juan never counted to three, he did things from the heart.

"Then he was the first to regret it, but it was done.

"He was a genius with a lot of genius."

Santillana completes the picture of what Juanito was like on the field, recalling his teammate fondly.

"He had some extraordinary qualities: quality, speed, intuition, dribbling," he says.

"Today, with everything there is to take care of a player, he would be one of the best.

Like Zamora, Jesus Maria Satrustegui shared a team with Juanito, the Spanish national team, and rivalry with Real Sociedad.

"He was a friend, first of all," he began.

"I was very hurt by his death, we share many things, because already in youth team we crossed paths.

"I was the captain of the Basque national team and he was for the Andalusian team.

"Playing alongside him was very easy, he was very good.

"Today he would be a star, he was short, like Lionel Messi, but he had an amazing quality and as a professional he was a number one.

"For every exercise the coach asked for, he was the first to do it; if you had to run, there was Juan to get in front, in everything."

He had the soul of a coach and got frustrated on the road to Merida after watching a match in his hometown, Madrid, and Balkan roots, as Vicente del Bosque says.

"He loved football, he was a passionate footballer, I'm sure he would have been a coach of Madrid," he explained.

Those of us who lived with Miljan Miljanic and Vujadin Boskov valued him highly and had method and purpose.

"In the last stage with Boskov, he began to participate more in the development and took on a coaching role," Portugal recalls.

"He was so good that he ended up almost as an organizer."

"He was very good, with a huge heart, too big, if he was bad, it was bad for him, but never for others," Del Bosque reflects.

"He was a charmer, if one day he was angry with you, then he was willing to give you a hug."

Portugal knew his other side only too well.

"He was detached, too much, he trusted everyone, he was very friendly with his friends, he was generous and always had an open hand," he says.

"He had no control over his spontaneity, he was unable to say no to anyone. he was approached by people he didn't know and... That was his big problem in life."

It was a combination of the player and the person that has turned the number seven into a legend.

"You just have to see how the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu remembers him," says Zamora.

"It was pure Real Madrid, the shirt, the club, the badge... they were his life."

This collection of memories is brought to an end by Andujar Oliver, a referee who recalls him ahead of many other players he worked with.

"I refereed him in Segunda with Burgos, in Primera with Madrid and a match as a coach, Rayo 3-Merida 4, and I sent him off," he remembers.

"When the game finished, he asked to come in and talk to me, I thought it was to complain about the red, but I said yes, he came in with Jose Fouto, the president of Merida, he only said one thing: 'Pepe, tell him what I said on Monday when we knew he was refereeing us, that we were winning for sure.' And they left."

In conversation, the biggest smile comes from Portugal as he imagines Juanito waiting for a decision from VAR.

"It's better not to, really, he was spontaneous in everything," he laughed.

"I don't see him standing there quietly waiting for them to decide whether it's a goal or not, Juan wasn't cut out for the whole taking it easy thing, his reactions, his promptness, were tremendous."

Andujar Oliver, who prefers not to talk too much about VAR, has the same reaction.

"Juanito was very heated on the pitch; I asked him to be calm, but there was no way," he said.

"He was a phenomenon."

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7rq3RnJhnm5%2BifKa6jp%2BmqKySlrmte9GemKVlnZaxs7XDaGlpamBkfXh7j3Bmbp5gaYGmsZacmG1vZGaxo4KXcZltbZGbe6nAzKU%3D