Francisco Javier Aguilar García, popularly known as Ico Aguilar, died at the age of 71. Ico Aguilar played for Real Madrid from the 1971-72 campaign until 1978-79. In those eight seasons He played 190 games with the white shirt, scoring 50 goals. Their distribution is as follows: 144 League matches (34 goals), 28 Cup matches (11 goals), eight European Cup matches (one goal), four Recopa matches (one goal) and six UEFA Cup matches, with three goals scored.
Born in Santander (03-26-1949), he was discovered by Laureano Ruiz, the great mentor of Cantabrian football, that took him away from handball and made him focus on soccer. End of those of a lifetime, from the boot stuck to the lime, his good performances in Racing, which he entered when the Santander team was active in the Third Division, at the end of the 1960s. In 1970 he promoted to Second with the Cantabrian team: in a tiebreaker match played at the Bernabéu he scored a key goal against Ilicitano. According to what they say, his performance was so prodigious that Madrid decided to sign him after that match. It also has the honor of being the author of Racing’s 2,000 goal in its history. In 1971, and due to his performances with the racinguista group, He was signed by Madrid in an operation that also included his teammates Santillana (he always says that the good of the three was Aguilar) and Corral, who was a goalkeeper (the first Cantabrian goalkeeper to win a Zamora Trophy). The Cantabrian group had a debt of some 23 million pesetas at the time, and this triple transfer helped it, according to some, to prevent the disappearance of the El Sardinero stadium; according to others, that of the club itself.
At Real Madrid he would win five Leagues and two Cups. His fine, fast and elegant game did not catch on in the eye of the white fan. After spending eight seasons, he ended up leaving, first to Sporting, where he spent two seasons, and then returned to the Spanish capital, to serve at Rayo Vallecano for a couple of seasons before hanging up his boots. Later he would be coach of RSD Alcalá and Logroñés. He was also three times international with the Spanish National Team: he debuted with a goal against Cyprus in the Granada stadium of Los Cármenes. Rest in peace.
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