2023-07-09 09:58:33
Spanish football legend Luis Suarez Miramontes, former Barcelona and Inter midfielder, who is still the only player born in Spain to be crowned with the Ballon d’Or, died today, Sunday, at the age of 88.
“First Spanish Ballon d’Or winner, 1964 European champion, coach of the national team and one of the biggest legends in football. Rest in peace Louisito,” the Spanish Football Federation said on its Twitter account.
The attacking midfielder was the first Spanish-born player to win the Ballon d’Or in 1960 (Alfredo Di Stefano, born in Argentina, achieved it in 1957 and 1959).
Inter said in his statement, “If he was playing in our days, social networking sites would be filled with his videos.”
He appeared with Barcelona between 1955 and 1961, winning the local league title twice, the Golden Ball in 1960, and falling in the final of the European Cup for Champion Clubs (currently the Champions League) in his last year in Catalonia.
He moved to Inter in the same year and crowned him with the prestigious continental title in 1964 and 1965.
Internationally, he contributed to the crowning of Spain as European champions in 1964 and was on the Golden Ball award podium three additional times (secondly in 1961 and 1964 and thirdly in 1965).
He ended his career with Italian Sampdoria in 1973 and moved to coaching in the same year.
He supervised Inter in the 1974-1975 season and moved between several teams, including Deportivo La Coruña (1978-1979), with whom he began his career as a player in 1953, before coaching the Spanish national team between 1988-1991 and exiting the 1990 World Cup Final in Italy once morest Yugoslavia.
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