The recent Champions League semi-final between Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, surpassed by the whites thanks to a couple of goals scored on the edge by Joselu Mato, has once again shown that In football it is not uncommon for supporting actors to supplant the role of protagonistseclipsing the big stars and leading their teams to success.
In the long and brilliant history of Real Madrid it has already happened on more than one occasion, but perhaps the most striking case is that of the sixth Cpa in Europe conquered by the meringues, in 1966, in the infamous Heysel Stadium in Brussels and against Partizan Belgrade, representative of the now defunct Yugoslavia in the main continental tournament. That afternoon-night in May, the Real Madrid victory by 2 to 1 had Serena as the author of the final goal that broke the momentary tie, a footballer who was not usually part of the starting line-up, but for whom destiny had reserved an absolutely transcendental role. in the decisive match.
International… in Osasuna
Fernando Rodríguez Serena, known in sports as ‘Serena’, was born in the capital of Spain on January 28, 1941. With a small but very appropriate physique for what would be her only position, right winger (1.65 and 64 kilos), she goes to train in the lower categories of Real Madrid, and in the 60-61 season, at the age of 19, he moved to Plus Ultra, in the Second Division, a club that then served as Madrid’s subsidiary. There he is going to have a good campaign – 24 games played and four goals -, along with a select group of footballers among whom were two very illustrious futures such as magnificent Juan Manuel Villa and Luis Aragonéssupported by elements of the stature of the ex-merengue Marsal, Gento III (Racing de Santander, Real Oviedo), Santos Bedoya (Español, R.Madrid, Deportivo and Sevilla), Casado (R.Madrid and Sabadell), Aparicio (Betis), Lorenzo (Granada), Calleja (Pontevedra) or Conesa (Mallorca).
Looking ahead to the 61-62 season, Madrid gives up a Primera, health, so that he can gain experience in the elite. In old San Juan he will play in the company of another outstanding group of players (Miche, Salvador, Zubiaurre, Zoco, Carlos, Sertucha, Silvestre, Sabino, Ribada, Fusté…). He will remain in Pampona for two seasons, taking part in 51 League matches and scoring 9 goals, and On January 9, 1963 he made his debut with the senior team in a friendly match against France held at the Camp Nou and in front of 72,000 spectators. The clash, which was not very solemn, will end with a dull 0 to 0 and shouts of out, out! by the Catalan public, and in it Pepe Villalonga, the Spanish coach, put the following eleven into play: Sadurní; Rivilla, Echeberría, Calleja; Glaria, Paquito; Collar (Serena in the second half), Adelardo, Morollón, Guillot and Gento. Those 45 minutes would represent his debut and farewell in the national team.
Back to the Bernabéu and decisive in Heysel
Real Madrid is going to re-fish it with a view to the League 63-64. In his first campaign he will play little – only seven league games, with two goals to his name – although he will be crowned league champion for the first time. The following year he can be considered a starter on the right wing (18 games and 6 goals), and he repeats again as winner of the Regularity Tournament, but his moment of glory was already approaching…
Against all odds Real Madrid is going to win its sixth European Cup in 1966with the so-called Ye-yés team, after leaving the great favorite, the almighty Inter Milan of Helenio Herrera and Luís Suárez, an apparently invincible pairing, by the wayside in the semifinals. The final against Partizan Belgrade was played at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, next to the Atomium, a stage that 19 years later would be colored with mourning in another continental final, on this occasion between Juventus and Liverpool.
Los You meringues They formed that day with eleven players born in Spain: Araquistáin; Pachín, De Felipe, Sanchis; Pirri, Souk; Serena, Amancio, Grosso Velázquez and Gento. Di Stefano was no longer in the club, taking his last breaths in the Spanish, and the veterans Santamaría and Puskas did not count for the coach either. Miguel Muñoz. At the start of the second half, the Yugoslavs took the lead on the scoreboard, but Madrid did not take long to equalize thanks to a magnificent goal from Amancio, breaking the waist of their pair with two trademark breaks, and very shortly after they would definitively unbalance the clash thanks to to a distant and powerful shot from Serenawho controlled the ball with his chest outside the rival area, let it bounce a couple of times, and connected with a hard right foot that went over the Balkan goal.
Franjiverde and quadribarrado
However, the position that Serena occupied, as a right outside player with the number 7 number, is going to be the most contested of the starting team, without a permanent owner. During the 60s, countless footballers passed through there: the ill-fated Chus Herrera, the Brazilian Canarythe former Barcelona player JustoTejada, Amancio himself, Agüero, Veloso, Miguel Pérez, De Diego, José Luís Peinado…With so much competition, Serena will have no choice but to change scene in 1968, after playing the famous Cup final that was called ‘of the bottles’due to the rain of glass containers uncivilly thrown onto the field of play in protest against the refereeing of the Balearic referee Antonio Rigo Sureda, which according to the local parish he ate a penalty on Serena himself (Barça won 0-1, with an own goal from Merengue Zunzunegui). His new destination is going to be Elche, where he will go together with a teammate, goalkeeper Araquistáin, after 86 official matches and 15 goals dressed in white, with 4 Leagues and a European Cup in his record. That was a great group, with Ballester, Iborra, Canós, Llompart, Lezcano, Vava or Asensi, who under the orders of Uruguayan coach Roque Máspoli will reach the Cup final – the second consecutive for our character – who will be defeated again 1 to 0, this time against the then king of Cups, Athletic de Bilbao.
Serena will remain in the old Altabix for another season, to sign in 1970 for a neighborhood team in Barcelona, San Andrés – today Saint Andrew—, in the Second Division, the category in which he had made his debut in professional football a decade ago. It will be his longest stay, as he will wear the four-bar jacket for six seasons, with very good performance and alongside the Mur – future Barça masseuse –, Bergara I, Riera, Martín, Feliu, Pepin or Martí Filosía. In 1976, already 35 years old, he abandoned football and settled in Pamplona.
Married to a Navarrese woman, and father of two children, he will be a regular at El Sadar and member of the Real Madrid and Osasuna Veterans Associations until the moment of his death, on October 15, 2018, victim of a rapid illness. By then Real Madrid had already won 13 European Cups under their belt, but at least one ear of La Sexta will always be theirs.
2024-05-26 06:12:23
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