Today is a sad day for FC Barcelona. The legendary ‘Chus’ Pereda has died at the age of 73 in Barcelona. The midfielder will never be forgotten at the Camp Nou, where he played for eight seasons.

Star for a decade

Jesús “Chus” Pereda was an amazing player. He was the central playmaker at the club throughout the sixties, forming an extraordinary midfield along with Josep Maria Fusté. He combined skills, strength and excellent shooting to become not just a great player, but also a great person, famous for his happy, open character.

316 games and 110 goals

Pereda was born in Medina de Pomar (Burgos) on June 15, 1938. When he was a child, his family moved to the Basque Country, where he started playing football for Indautxu(1955-57). He was later at Real Madrid (1957-58); Valladolid (1958-59) and Sevilla (1959-61). In 1961 he signed for FC Barcelona, and was there for eight seasons, scoring 110 goals in 316 matches. He won one Fairs Cup (1965-66) and two Spanish Cups (1962-63 and 1967-68) before ending his career at Sabadell (1969-70) and Mallorca (1970-72). He later went into management and coached the Spanish national side at various youth levels.

Hero of 1964 European Championship

He won 15 caps for Spain, and appeared at the 1964 European Championship, where he scored the first goal in the final against the USSR and also laid on the famous winner for Marcelino.