Luis Arconada

Luis Miguel Arconada Etxarri (born June 26 1954) is a Spanish former international football goalkeeper. In his career he chalked up 551 first-division games in Spain, and 68 national team caps. He represented his native country at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada, where Spain was eliminated in the first round.

Biography

Arconada was born in Donostia-San Sebastián,Gipuzkoa.

His professional career began in 1973 with Real Sociedad, with whom he lived out his whole career and reached the semifinals of the European Cup in 1983 before retiring from the sport in 1989. On March 27 1977 he played his first game for Spain and also captained the side on many occasions. His last game for Spain was in 1985. He was considered one of the world's best goalkeepers of his time and arguably one of the best ever. Unfortunately, he is also remembered for a spectacular error in the final of the Euro 84 against France, not unlike the fatal moment of Germany's Oliver Kahn in the 2002 World Cup final. 59 minutes into the match, as the score was still 0-0, Arconada appeared to have smothered a Michel Platini free-kick under his chest in a diving save but he fumbled the ball, which slid off under his body and rolled slowly into the net. France went on to win the match 2-0 and French football lingo has referred to this type of goalkeeping error as an "Arconada" ever since. Following Euro 84, Arconada was replaced as first-choice Spain goalkeeper by Andoni Zubizarreta. He was know as "el pulpo" (in english, "the octopus").

During the ceremony following Spain's victory in Euro 2008, the third Spanish goalkeeper Andrés Palop wore Arconada's original Euro 84 final shirt. He received the gold medal from Michel Platini, now president of UEFA, himself.

Honours

* Spanish Champions 2
** 1980-81, 1981-82
* Copa del Rey 1
** 1987
* Zamora Trophy 3
** 1980, 1981, 1982

External links

* [http://futbol.sportec.es/seleccion/ficha_jugador.asp?j=45&n=arconada/luis/miguel/arconada/echarri Spain Stats]
* [http://www.lfp.es/historico/primera/plantillas/historial.asp?jug=3988 La Liga stats]