José Emilio Santamaría died on Wednesday at the age of 96. Real Madrid said it deeply regretted his death and called him one of the club’s greatest legends.
Santamaría arrived at Real Madrid in 1957 from Club Nacional de Football and stayed for nine seasons, until 1966. In that time he won four European Cups, one Intercontinental Cup, six league titles and one Spanish Cup in 337 matches, and the club said he was part of the team that won the first consecutive European Cups in history. President Florentino Pérez said Santamaría would always be remembered as one of the club’s great symbols.
Born in Uruguay, Santamaría built his career between Montevideo and Madrid. He won the Uruguayan championship four times with Nacional, played 25 times for Uruguay and 16 times for Spain, and appeared at the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland with Uruguay and the 1962 World Cup in Chile with Spain. For Spain, he later moved into coaching and was in charge of the national team at the 1982 World Cup in Spain.
After retiring as a player, Santamaría began coaching the following year in Real Madrid’s youth system. He also led Spain’s Olympic team at the 1968 Mexico Olympics and again at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. From 1971, he coached RCD Espanyol for seven seasons and 252 matches, becoming the coach with the most official matches in the club’s history.
The loss lands hard at Real Madrid because Santamaría was not only part of the club’s European dynasty but also one of the players who carried its early legend. The club said he stood with Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, Paco Gento and Raymond Kopa in the side that began to build the myth of Real Madrid, while Espanyol marked him as its longest-serving coach by official matches. He had remained one of Madrid’s most enduring Uruguayan figures until Federico Valverde surpassed his appearance mark in November 2025.
For both clubs, Santamaría leaves behind a record that was built in trophies and in longevity. For Spain, he leaves the memory of a player and coach who crossed generations and eras without ever leaving football’s biggest stages.