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Andoni
Zubizarreta
(Spain)
Born
in Vitoria, Andoni Zubizarreta, belongs to an
exclusive list of players who have appeared in four
World Cups. He had to wait for several years to break
into the national team because of the presence of Luis
Arconada, but made his debut against Finland in 1985.
“Zubi” began his career in Athletic Bilbao and
made his league debut for them in 1982. He had
established himself as the national team goalkeeper
before the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and gave some
quality performances as Spain reached the
quarterfinals and lost to Belgium on penalties.
Zubizarreta’s greatest
asset as a goalkeeper was his positioning. He was
seldom forced to make spectacular saves because of his
ability to read the game. A goalkeeper without any
special weaknesses, Zubi kept himself at the top for
many years because of his great all-round abilities.
In 1986, Barcelona signed him and Zubi spent eight
wonderful years at the Nou Camp. He played some of his
best games for Spain in the 1990 World Cup in Italy,
especially against Uruguay and Belgium, but Yugoslavia
won and knocked them out in extra-time already in the
second round.
Four years later in USA,
Zubi again had a fine tournament, but Italy beat them
with a last-minute goal from Roberto Baggio in the
quarterfinal. He bowed out of international football
after the 1998 World Cup where he made a dreadful
error against Nigeria, pushing the ball into his own
net and was partially responsible for Spain’s first
round exit. Despite this, Zubizarreta could look back
at a very successful career having won many honours
including, six Spanish league championships, three
Spanish Cup titles, a European Cup Winners’ Cup
title and a European Champions Cup title. He played
more than 600 league games in Spain and won 126 caps,
both are Spanish records.
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