Juan_Manuel_Asensi Knowpia

Juan Manuel Asensi
	Asensi in 1973
Personal information
Full name	Juan Manuel Asensi Ripoll
Date of birth	23 September 1949 (age 74)
Place of birth	Alicante, Spain
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
	Elche
Senior career*
Years	Team
1966–1967	Ilicitano
1967–1970	Elche
1970–1980	Barcelona
1980–1982	Puebla
1982–1983	Oaxtepec
Total
International career
1967–1968	Spain U18
1969–1971	Spain U23
1967–1971	Spain amateur
1969–1980	Spain
Managerial career
1992–1995	Barcelona (youth)
2002	Orihuela
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Juan Manuel Asensi Ripoll (born 23 September 1949) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.

Club career edit

Born in Alicante, Valencian Community, Asensi began his career at local Elche CF – at the time in La Liga – before joining FC Barcelona in 1970, for 80 million pesetas. During his time at the club, he was instrumental in helping the Catalans win the league in 1974 (34 matches, 11 goals, third-best in squad), also adding the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1979 and scoring in the final held in Basel.^[2]

After only ten matches in the 1980–81 season, but 484 competitive appearances with 124 goals, 32-year-old Asensi moved to Mexico where he would play until his retirement in 1983.^[3] He had two brief spells at coaching, with Barcelona's youth sides and lowly Orihuela CF.^[4]

International career edit

Asensi represented Spain 41 times, scoring seven goals. His debut came on 23 February 1969 in a 1–2 loss against Belgium for the 1970 FIFA World Cup qualification, as the country did not make it to the final stages.^[5]

Asensi was picked for the squads at the 1978 World Cup and UEFA Euro 1980 – his last international was played in the latter competition, also against Belgium (and also 1–2 defeat) – and also competed at the 1968 Summer Olympics.^[6]

International goals edit


#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	23 February 1969	Sclessin, Liège, Belgium	Belgium	2–1	2–1	1970 World Cup qualification
2.	11 October 1972	Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain	Argentina	1–0	1–0	Friendly
3.	19 October 1972	Insular, Las Palmas, Spain	Yugoslavia	2–2	2–2	1974 World Cup qualification
4.	23 February 1974	Sarrià, Barcelona, Spain	West Germany	1–0	1–0	Friendly
5.	11 June 1978	José Amalfitani, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Sweden	1–0	1–0	1978 FIFA World Cup
6.	15 November 1978	Luis Casanova, Valencia, Spain	Romania	1–0	1–0	Euro 1980 qualifying
7.	13 December 1978	Helmántico, Salamanca, Spain	Cyprus	1–0	5–0	Euro 1980 qualifying

Post-retirement edit

In 1984, Asensi co-founded the TARR football school in Barcelona with fellow ex-players Carles Rexach, Joaquim Rifé and Antoni Torres.^[7]

Honours edit

Barcelona

References edit

^ "Asensi". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
^ "1978/79: Barcelona win seven-goal thriller". UEFA. 1 June 1979. Archived from the original on 3 May 2010. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
^ "Equipo Puebla 1980–81" [Puebla team 1980–81] (in Spanish). Puebla80s Blogspot. May 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
^ "Esteban and Asensi, técnicos" [Esteban and Asensi, managers] (PDF). Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 22 July 1991. Retrieved 25 May 2017.
^ "Juan Manuel Asensi – International Appearances". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
^ "Asensi". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
^ "Qué fue de... Asensi" [What happened to... Asensi] (in Spanish). Cadena SER. 3 September 2009. Retrieved 17 October 2017.