José Antonio Camacho

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José Antonio Camacho (born June 8, 1955 in the village of Cieza, Murcia) is a former Spanish football (soccer) player and manager.

Camacho joined Real Madrid at age 18, playing left defence between 1973 and 1989 and taking part in 400 First Division matches, in spite of a knee injury which put his career on hold for two years. He also played 81 games for the Spanish national team, taking part in two World Cups, in 1982 and 1986. Camacho also played in Euro 84 and Euro 88.

Following his retirement as a player in 1989, Camacho was part of the Real Madrid coaching team. He later went on to coach three more Spanish teams, two of which – Rayo Vallecano and RCD Espanyol – he took into the First Division. He also coached Real Madrid for a brief 22 days in 1998, but left over disagreements with the club's management.

In 1998, Camacho took over from Javier Clemente in September 1998 after Spain were beaten 3-2 by Cyprus in a Euro 2000 qualifier as the coach for Spain's national football team. Honest, forthright and firm, he was a refreshing change from Clemente, who had an arrogant manner and mishandled the media.

The tide quickly turned under Camacho, who has signed up to coach the Spanish team up to the 2002 World Cup. Spain secured a spot at the 2000 European Championship, where Spain started off as one of the favourites (Spain reached the quarter finals, but was eliminated after a 2-1 defeat against eventual winners and world champions, France).

Two years later, Camacho's team suffered an even bigger disappointment by losing out to South Korea on penalties in the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup. This lead to his resignation of the national team which will be taken over by Iñaki Sáez.

After that, Camacho was appointed the new coach of Benfica on November 29, 2002. He would replace Jesualdo Ferreira, who was sacked after a poor start of his team. Two years later, his team won the Portuguese Cup and the runners-up of the Portuguese SuperLiga.

Camacho went on to coach Real Madrid again, he signed a two year contract after a disappointing forth-place finish in the 2003/2004 Spanish La Liga which led to the sacking of Carlos Queiroz. But things started to go wrong again, after his side suffered a 3-0 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League and had a 1-0 defeat at Espanyol four days later. Shortly after that he resigned and was replaced by his assistant Mariano García Remón.

As of 2006, Camacho is unemployed.

	Spain squad - 1982 FIFA World Cup
1 Arconada | 2 Camacho | 3 Gordillo | 4 Alonso | 5 Tendillo | 6 Alexanko | 7 Juanito | 8 Joaquín | 9 Satrústegui | 10 Zamora | 11 López Ufarte | 12 Urquiaga | 13 Jiménez | 14 Maceda | 15 Saura | 16 Sánchez | 17 Gallego | 18 Uralde | 19 Santillana | 20 Quini | 21 Urruti | 22 Miguel Ángel | Coach: Santamaría

	Spain squad - 1986 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Zubizarreta | 2 Tomás | 3 Camacho | 4 Maceda | 5 Víctor | 6 Gordillo | 7 Señor | 8 Goikoetxea | 9 Butragueño | 10 Carrasco | 11 Julio Alberto | 12 Setién | 13 Urruti | 14 Gallego | 15 Chendo | 16 Rincón | 17 Francisco | 18 Calderé | 19 Salinas | 20 Eloy | 21 Míchel | 22 Ablanedo | Coach: Muñoz

	Spain squad - 2002 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Casillas | 2 Torres | 3 Juanfran | 4 Helguera | 5 Puyol | 6 Hierro | 7 Raúl | 8 Baraja | 9 Morientes | 10 Tristán | 11 de Pedro | 12 Luque | 13 Ricardo | 14 Albelda | 15 Romero | 16 Mendieta | 17 Valerón | 18 Sergio | 19 Xavi | 20 Nadal | 21 Luis Enrique | 22 Joaquín | 23 Contreras | Coach: Camacho