Francisco Mateo

Paco Mateo
Personal information
Full nameFrancisco Mateo
Date of birthMay 15, 1917
Place of birthAlgeciras, Spain
Date of deathJuly 21, 1979 (aged 62)
Place of deathStrasbourg, France
Playing positionDefender
Youth career
FC Tétouan
Sevilla FC
FC Barcelona
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1937–1939Valencia
1939–1945Bordeaux
1945–1950Strasbourg118(17)
Teams managed
1951-1952La Walck
1952–1956Bischwiller
1957–1961Mutzig
1962–1970Pierrots Strasbourg
1970–1971Strasbourg
1977–1979Vauban Strasbourg
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Francisco "Paco" Mateo (15 May 1917 in Algeciras - 21 July 1979 in Strasbourg) was a Spanish-French footballer who played as a professional for Valencia, Bordeaux and Strasbourg. He also was a coach and manager for RC Strasbourg.

Bio

Mateo started his career as a promising youngster playing for a Spanish club in Tétouan, Morocco and quickly attracted the attention of the biggest clubs in the Spanish mainland, joining Sevilla FC and then FC Barcelona before the outbreak of the Spanish civil war. Mateo chose the Republican side, spending most of the war in Valencia. Towards the end of the conflict, he was imprisoned due to his political leanings[1] but was released on the insistence of the Girondins de Bordeaux and was therefore able to emigrate to France shortly before the outbreak of World War II.

In Bordeaux, Mateo played for the Girondins in a local league as the French Championship had been disbanded due to the war. He also met his wife, an Alsatian who had been evacuated to south-west France in 1939.[1] When the war was terminated, he accompanied his wife back to Alsace and quickly joined RC Strasbourg where he plained until the end of the decade, reaching the final of the cup in 1947.

After the end of his playing career, Mateo continued as a youth coach for RC Strasbourg where he taught the likes of Gilbert Gress, Gérard Hausser, Albert Gemmrich or Léonard Specht. He was responsible for the first team between October 1970 and June 1971 but was not able to save Strasbourg from relegation. He died in 1979, shortly after Strasbourg's first and only championship crown.

References

External links