Alfonso Pérez Muñoz (born 26 September 1972), known simply as Alfonso, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a striker.
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Alfonso Pérez Muñoz | |||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 26 September 1972 | |||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Getafe, Spain | |||||||||||||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | |||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Striker | |||||||||||||
| Youth career | ||||||||||||||
| 1985–1986 | Getafe | |||||||||||||
| 1986–1989 | Real Madrid | |||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||
| 1989–1992 | Real Madrid B | 3 | (1) | |||||||||||
| 1991–1995 | Real Madrid | 88 | (13) | |||||||||||
| 1995–2000 | Betis | 152 | (57) | |||||||||||
| 2000–2002 | Barcelona | 21 | (2) | |||||||||||
| 2002 | → Marseille (loan) | 11 | (4) | |||||||||||
| 2002–2005 | Betis | 45 | (10) | |||||||||||
| Total | 320 | (87) | ||||||||||||
| International career | ||||||||||||||
| 1988–1989 | Spain U16 | 12 | (6) | |||||||||||
| 1989–1990 | Spain U18 | 12 | (5) | |||||||||||
| 1991 | Spain U19 | 1 | (0) | |||||||||||
| 1991–1993 | Spain U21 | 7 | (0) | |||||||||||
| 1991–1992 | Spain U23 | 11 | (6) | |||||||||||
| 1992–2000 | Spain | 38 | (11) | |||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | ||||||||||||||
Having represented both Real Madrid and Barcelona during his career, Alfonso possessed above-average heading ability despite not reaching 180 cm. He appeared in 307 La Liga games for three teams (also had two spells with Real Betis), scoring 84 goals.
The recipient of nearly 40 caps for Spain, Alfonso appeared for the nation in one World Cup and two European Championships.
Club career edit
Alfonso was born in Getafe, in the outskirts of Madrid. In 1991, aged just 18, he made his professional debut with Real Madrid and, although he never carved a regular place in the starting XI – playing mostly as understudy to Emilio Butragueño first and then Iván Zamorano – helped the capital side to the 1995 national championship.
In the summer of 1995, Alfonso joined Real Betis. In his second year at the Manuel Ruiz de Lopera, he scored 25 La Liga goals which was the most goals by a player in a season in the club's history. Teaming up with Pier, the pair combined for 60 from 1995 to 1997, and helped the Andalusia team finish fourth in the latter.[1][2]
FC Barcelona signed Alfonso for the 2000–01 campaign. The player had a difficult time adjusting at Camp Nou, netting only twice in his first year and serving an unsuccessful loan spell at French Ligue 1 side Olympique de Marseille in January 2002, alongside Real Madrid's Alberto Rivera.[3]
Barcelona then loaned Alfonso to former club Betis, which signed him permanently at the end of the season. After another two seasons where he struggled with injuries and loss of form (ten scoreless games in 2004–05), he retired from football when his contract expired in June 2005, having scored more than 100 official goals during his career; he subsequently returned to Real Madrid, joining its veterans' team.
International career edit
Alfonso appeared in 38 games for Spain, making his debut in a friendly with England on 9 September 1992, in Santander.[4] The most important of his 11 goals was scored against Yugoslavia in UEFA Euro 2000: the team was losing 3–2 in injury time, needing a win to qualify from the group at Norway's expense. In the 90th minute, a penalty was won and converted by Gaizka Mendieta, and with seconds remaining Alfonso volleyed a spectacular shot past Ivica Kralj for his second of the game and the win.[5]
Alfonso also took part in all of the matches at Euro 1996, including against Bulgaria in which he scored the equaliser after just one minute on the pitch.[6] Additionally, he played two 1998 FIFA World Cup games.
Alfonso was also a member of the national team that won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics, in Barcelona.[7]
Personal life edit
Alfonso is the older brother of another footballer, Iván Pérez Muñoz. Both Real Madrid youth graduates, they coincided one season at Betis and reunited at Real Madrid veterans.[8]
Getafe CF's stadium, the Coliseum Alfonso Pérez, was named after him, despite the fact that he never played professionally for his hometown club.[9] His name was dropped from the stadium name after he made disparaging remarks about female footballers in an interview.[10]
Career statistics edit
- Scores and results list Spain's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Pérez goal.
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 December 1992 | Sánchez Pizjuán, Seville, Spain |  Latvia | 3–0 | 5–0 | 1994 World Cup qualification |
| 2 | 6 September 1995 | Los Cármenes, Granada, Spain |  Cyprus | 2–0 | 6–0 | Euro 1996 qualifying |
| 3 | 9 June 1996 | Elland Road, Leeds, England |  Bulgaria | 1–1 | 1–1 | UEFA Euro 1996 |
| 4 | 4 September 1996 | Svangaskarð, Toftir, Faroe Islands |  Faroe Islands | 2–1 | 6–2 | 1998 World Cup qualification |
| 5 | 4–1 | |||||
| 6 | 6–1 | |||||
| 7 | 12 February 1997 | Rico Pérez, Alicante, Spain |  Malta | 2–0 | 4–0 | 1998 World Cup qualification |
| 8 | 3–0 | |||||
| 9 | 29 March 2000 | Montjuïc, Barcelona, Spain |  Italy | 1–0 | 2–0 | Friendly |
| 10 | 21 June 2000 | Jan Breydel, Bruges, Belgium |  Yugoslavia | 1–1 | 4–3 | UEFA Euro 2000 |
| 11 | 4–3 |
Honours edit
Real Madrid
Betis
- Copa del Rey: 2004–05
Spain U23
Individual
References edit
- ^ "En el espejo de Alfonso y Pier" [Mirroring Alfonso and Pier] (in Spanish). Diario de Sevilla. 6 January 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
- ^ "El perfil: Alfonso Pérez Muñoz" [The profile: Alfonso Pérez Muñoz] (in Spanish). Real Betis. 26 September 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
- ^ "El Barça cede a Alfonso al Marsella" [Barça loan Alfonso to Marseille] (in Spanish). ABC. 8 January 2002. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
- ^ La nueva etapa se abre con victoria (New era gets started with win); Mundo Deportivo, 10 September 1992 (in Spanish)
- ^ Spain survive in seven-goal classic; BBC Sport, 21 June 2000
- ^ Spain start with a point against Bulgaria; UEFA, 6 October 2003
- ^ "La Roja de 1992, nuestra medalla de oro Olímpica" [1992's La Roja, our Olympic gold medal] (in Spanish). Antena 3. 3 July 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
- ^ El Madrid mantiene el liderato sufriendo (Madrid stay on top after suffering); Marca, 8 February 2008 (in Spanish)
- ^ Martín, Dunia (6 May 2010). "Getafe final honour delights Alfonso". UEFA. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
- ^ "Getafe: La Liga club drop Alfonso Perez from stadium name after sexist comments". BBC Sport. 4 October 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
- ^ "Supervivientes de oro" [Golden survivors] (in Spanish). El País. 25 February 2007. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
External links edit
- Alfonso Pérez at BDFutbol
- Betisweb stats and bio (in Spanish) at archive.today (archived 26 August 2013)
- Alfonso Pérez – French league stats at LFP – also available in French (archived)
- Alfonso Pérez at National-Football-Teams.com
- Alfonso Pérez – FIFA competition record (archived)
- Alfonso Pérez at EU-Football.info