18 Facts About Pedro Vallana

Pedro Vicente Saturnino Vallana Jeanguenat was a Spanish footballer, referee and manager in Spain in the 1920s.

Pedro Vallana spent all 12 seasons of his playing career with Arenas de Getxo, during the club's golden age, thus being a historical player of the club and part of the so-called one-club men group.

Pedro Vallana was a member of the Spain national team which won the silver medal in the football tournament of the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp.

Pedro Vallana participated in a further two Olympic Games for a total of three, a record that no other Spanish footballer has broken.

Pedro Vallana was loyal to his hometown club in his entire career as a footballer, the Arenas Club de Getxo, which he arrived in 1912, three years after its founding, while still a teenager and where he remained until his retirement 17 years later in 1929.

Pedro Vallana stood out for his great speed, which he used to help him easily snatch the ball from the opponent.

Pedro Vallana was a good athlete, who practiced athletics in parallel with his career as a footballer, and in fact, he held the Vizcaya record for the 100 metres dash between 1922 and 1928.

Pedro Vallana earned 12 caps for Spain between 1920 and 1928, half of which in Olympic football tournaments.

Pedro Vallana's other two caps in the Olympics came in the 1924 and 1928 editions, which is a record since no other Spanish player has been in three Olympic events.

Pedro Vallana belonged to the Colegio Vizcaino, of which he ended up being president.

Pedro Vallana refereed 33 matches in the First Division during those years.

Pedro Vallana later reported on the Olympics as a sports journalist for the newspaper El Mundo Deportivo.

Pedro Vallana acted as a sports commentator in the Bilbao sports newspaper Excelsior.

In 1933 Pedro Vallana wrote in the sports magazine Campeon a memory of fellow Spanish legend, rival, and companion, Rafael Moreno, better known as Pichichi, called Pichichi inenarrable.

At the beginning of 1937, the Basque Government arranged for the Basque Country national team to make a tour in Europe and play friendly matches, in order to raise funds in Europe for Basque refugees and carry out propaganda work in favor of the Basque Government and the Spanish Republic, and Pedro Vallana enlisted as the team's coach.

Pedro Vallana went into exile in Uruguay in 1938, a country he had known since 1922 when he played a series of friendlies there with a team of Basque players.

Pedro Vallana brought his wife and daughters from the Basque Country later.

Pedro Vallana died in Montevideo on 4 July 1980, at the age of 83.