Héctor Rial

Héctor Rial
Personal information

Full name	José Héctor Rial Laguía
Date of birth	(1928-10-14)14 October 1928
Place of birth	Pergamino, Argentina
Date of death	24 February 1991(1991-02-24) (aged 62)
Playing position	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
1947–1948	San Lorenzo	40	(20)
1948–1951	Independiente Santa Fe	54	(26)
1952–1954	Nacional	51	(20)
1954–1961	Real Madrid	113	(60)
1961–1962	Espanyol	6	(1)
1962–1963	Marseille	?	(?)
1964	Unión Española	?	(?)
National team^‡
1955–1958	Spain	5	(1)
Teams managed
1965	Pontevedra
1966	Mallorca
1969–1970	Real Zaragoza
1970–1971	Las Palmas
1971–1972	Spain Olympic
	Chivas
	Saudi Arabia
1976	Deportivo La Coruña
1978	Estudiantes
	El Salvador
1980	Elche
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 29 December 2006. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of December 2006

José Héctor Rial Laguía (14 October 1928 – 24 February 1991) was a football player from Argentina who played for Real Madrid between 1954 and 1961. He was part of the team that won five consecutive European Cups. He played professional football in Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Spain, France and Chile as well as representing the Spain national football team on five occasions.

Rial started playing professional football in 1947 with San Lorenzo de Almagro in the Primera Division Argentina. In July 1949, he moved to Colombia to play for Independiente Santa Fe,.^[1] After 2 seasons with the club, he moved to Uruguay to join Nacional where he was part of the Primera División Uruguaya championship winning side of 1952.

In 1954 Rial joined Spanish giants Real Madrid, where he played for 7 years, amassing 10 major titles with the team.

In 1961 Rial left Real to join Espanyol in Barcelona, but he left the club after a disappointing season, where the club finished 13th of the 16 teams in La Liga. The next season, Rial joined the French club Olympique de Marseille, which finished at the bottom of the league, prompting Rial's return to South America.

Rial's final season was the 1964 campaign with Unión Española in Chile. The club finished 6th in the league, and he retired at the end of the season.