Name Jose Esnaola | Role Footballer | |
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José Ramón Esnaola Laburu (born 3 June 1946 in Andoain, Gipuzkoa) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
He spent 40 years at the service of Betis, working with the club in various capacities.
Football career
During his career, Esnaola played for Real Sociedad and Real Betis, with 16 of his 20 professional seasons being spent in La Liga. In that level, he appeared in 166 league matches with the first club and 303 with the second, for which he signed in 1973 for 12 million pesetas as the club was in Segunda División; with the former, he started initially as backup to Adolfo Arriaga, but gained first-choice status as he became severely ill after shattering his pancreas during a game against UP Langreo.
In Esnaola's first year, the Andalusians returned to the top division as champions, and with the best defensive record in the competition. In the 1977 final of the Copa del Rey, against another Basque side, Athletic Bilbao, he gained his only piece of silverware, in an epic final: 2–2 after regulation and 8–7 in the penalty shootout, where he stopped three shots and scored the winner, beating counterpart José Ángel Iribar; Betis was relegated at the end of the following campaign.
Esnaola retired in 1985, at the age of 39. He then managed Betis in two brief spells, the first in 1990–91 which finished in top flight relegation. In 2007 he returned to the club, now as goalkeepers' coach, retiring altogether six years later; he was never a Spanish international, only receiving one callup whilst at Real Sociedad.
