The Frying Pan of Spain: Sevilla v Real Betis: Spain's Hottest Football Rivalry by Colin Millar

Author:Colin Millar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Sevilla Sales Signal Stagnation

THE date of 21 April 1968 was a day the city of Seville would rather forget. On the penultimate weekend of La Liga action, the relegation of both Real Betis and Sevilla was confirmed. For the former it was their fourth demotion in their history and second in three years but for Los Rojiblancos this was a first – their 34-year uninterrupted stay in the Primera was over. The fact it was Juan Arza in the dugout underlined the fall in playing standards from the heyday of El Niño de Oro’s Sevilla.

The previous campaign Sevilla avoided relegation courtesy of defeating Real Gijón (later renamed Sporting de Gijón) in a promotion/relegation play-off. Indeed, they had recorded just one top-seven finish that decade – the fall did not come as a great surprise. This was the third of Arza’s four spells at the helm, having replaced Antonio Barrios after just three wins in the opening 18 games. Under the former striker, results modestly improved but not enough to prevent the inevitable.

Sevilla’s status had suffered since the death of president Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán 12 years earlier, with cutbacks in budgets having a significant impact on the quality of the squad. Unlike in previous years, they were no longer able to retain their playing talent.

Manuel Ruiz Sosa was one such star, a local boy from the Sevillian town Coria del Río, who would no doubt have helped his side to domestic glory in a different era. The midfielder soon earned the nickname the ‘Pearl of Coria’, due to his tremendous talent. Promoted to Sevilla’s first-team squad as a teenager in the 1956/57 campaign, he helped the side to a second-placed spot, the European Cup quarter-final the following year and, in 1962, the final of the Copa del Generalísimo. On each occasion, the club who stopped Ruiz Sosa and Sevilla was Real Madrid.

Known as a player of high technical ability, he was able to run a game from the middle of the pitch and had no shortage of physical strength. Indeed, the one drawback he suffered from, as often detailed, was his lack of height. “I have had to do without some very good players, for example Ruiz Sosa from Andalucía,” said Spain youth boss Ramón Melcón in 1954, when explaining the player’s exclusion for a game against Germany. “He displays great intuition with his play, shows fantastic temperament and an extraordinary backbone. In short, his only disadvantage is his height, and since in this position there are other very good players of equal quality, I have selected those who are taller.”

After eight seasons in the first team at Sevilla, in which he won international recognition, Ruiz Sosa was sold to Atlético de Madrid in the summer of 1964. He had been en route to true greatness at Sevilla and in 1959 he won the Trofeo Patricio Arabolaza (referred to as the Trofeo a la Furia Española) – a trophy set up by Marca, running between 1953 and 1968, awarded to the

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