MADRID, 2 Apr. (SportsFinding) –
The Association of Spanish Soccer Players (AFE) has vindicated this Saturday the “essential legacy” of the soccer player and coach Juan Gómez ‘Juanito’, just when this April 2 marks the 30th anniversary of his dramatic death in a traffic accident.
Together with Antonio Esteo, the former Madrid striker took the first steps towards founding AFE, which was established as a union on January 23, 1978. “It was the one from Fuengirola, in the face of so much injustice, who rebelled so that the footballer, especially all the most modest, had the recognition they deserved like any other professional”, highlights AFE, recalling that its “values” mark “the daily work of all the people who are part of the association”.
Former Spanish coach Vicente del Bosque, former teammate of Juanito at Real Madrid, highlights the work of the Andalusian. “Juanito and Manuel Esteo were at the genesis of everything, the people who created the AFE foundation. They got together with the lawyer José Luis Carceller, José Cabrera Bazán, a soccer player and also a lawyer, and Quino. They were the five key people in the foundation from AFE”, he recalls.
For his part, José Antonio Camacho, who also shared a dressing room with him for years, assures that he was “a very special footballer”. “As a footballer and a friend, everyone always liked him very much. He was always very direct and very clear. He was one of the strongest men at the beginning of AFE and his work for the association was born,” he highlights. .
“He was a great player, but even more so as a person. He was the architect of everything, thanks to him AFE was born. He spoke with a few colleagues, one by one, about the subject, about his idea of founding a union. He chose a group of us of footballers who had a certain specific weight. If it had not been for him, and especially at that time, the association would not have been born, “says Juan Manuel Asensi, former FC Barcelona footballer and also former president of AFE.
“To talk about Juanito, I stand up,” says Fernando Zambrano, also founder and currently head of the AFE Veteran Soccer Player Service Department, who highlights his qualities “as a person and a soccer player.” “But above all, I highlight all that he worked to found the association, and thanks to his dedication, AFE is what it is today,” he points out.
José Luis Carceller, legal adviser in the genesis of AFE, highlights that Juanito “was the footballer par excellence.” “He was a very valuable representative for the player collective,” he recalls.