Telmo Zarra

Pedro Telmo Zarraonandía Montoya (20 January 1921 – 23 February 2006), known as Telmo Zarra, was a Spanish football forward.

Zarra was born on 20 January 1921 at the Asúa train station in Erandio, Biscay.

He was the son of Telmo Zarraonandía, an engineer and head of Asúa station, and Tomasa Montoya.

Zarra was the seventh of ten children, five of them boys.

When he was young, Zarra used to play football with his neighbours.

While other children had homemade or improvised balls, Zarra had access to a real ball, as two of his brothers played football in La Liga with Arenas de Getxo: Tomás, a goalkeeper and the oldest sibling, and Domingo, who died during the Spanish Civil War.

His father did not like Zarra playing football, because "it was enough with two brothers in the practice of this game."

But Zarra liked the sport and began playing for several local teams, including Asia and Pitoberese.

At that time, he was nicknamed "Telmito the fearful", as he would play cautiously, being ashamed and self-conscious of his skill.

Zarra signed his first professional contract with SD Erandio Club of the Second Division, and was incorporated into team during the 1937–38 season.

Later he was recruited to a team from Biscay to play a friendly match against a team assembled from Guipuzcoa, during which Zarra scored seven goals in a 9–0 win.

Around this time, Athletic Bilbao was looking for players to rebuild the team, which had been disbanded years before in the chaos caused by the Civil War.

He spent the majority of his career at Athletic Bilbao, from 1940 to 1955, for whom he remains the top scorer in competitive matches with 335 goals.

Zarra signed for Athletic after playing one season for Erandio.

He became a prolific goalscorer in his 15 seasons at the club, winning the Pichichi Trophy as the highest scorer in La Liga on six occasions.

During his career, Zarra scored a total of 251 league goals, a Spanish record that lasted nearly six decades before being broken by Lionel Messi.

His 81 goals in the Copa del Rey remain a record.

Despite his goalscoring records, he only played for Spain 20 times.

The team began recruiting young, promising players from Erandio for their team for the 1940–41 season.

Zarra debuted with Athletic Club on 29 September 1940, in a league match against Valencia CF.

The game ended in a 2–2 draw, with Zarraonandía scoring both goals for his team (including his first league goal, scored 17 minutes into the game).

During the 1941–42 season Zarra temporarily left Athletic Bilbao to join the army.

He was dispatched to Ceuta, and played some friendly matches with the team there.

Upon his return to Bilbao, Zarra experienced one of the biggest disappointments of his career while playing in the final of the Copa del Rey against Barcelona.

They had reached the end of normal time and neither team had managed to score.

During extra time, Zarra had an opportunity to score against rival goalkeeper Miró, but he missed the shot; consequently, Barça won the match and Cup.

The 1942–43 campaign was one of the most important for both Zarra and Athletic Bilbao.

Athletic reached the Copa del Rey final after having defeated Atlético Madrid and FC Valencia.

There they met Real Madrid and this time, Zarra was able to redeem himself by scoring the only goal in the final, winning the year's cup in addition to the league title.

Zarra's first serious injury occurred in the 1943–44 season in a match against Barcelona.

He broke his clavicle and was unable to play for a while.

Once recovered, Zarra was able to return to the pitch and celebrate with a Copa del Rey title, helping Athletic record a 2–0 win over Valencia.

In the 1944–45 season, with Athletic again facing Valencia in the Copa del Rey final, four minutes from time a Valencia player fell to the ground.

Zarra made a move to trample the fallen player, as a joke, and he was sent off by the referee.

This expulsion was the first and only he suffered throughout his career.

He also scored his country's winning goal against England in the 1950 World Cup finals as Spain reached the final four—their best performance in the competition until winning the 2010 FIFA World Cup 60 years later.

Even so, he still managed to score 20 goals, including four in one match as Spain beat Switzerland 6–3 on 18 February 1951.

After leaving Athletic in 1955, he played for one year with SD Indautxu and another with Barakaldo CF before retiring.

He died of a heart attack on 24 February 2006, aged 85.

The Zarra Trophy for the highest-scoring Spaniard in La Liga is awarded in his memory.