Antonio de la Cruz

Antonio de la Cruz (full name Jesús Antonio de la Cruz Gallego) is a former football player and coach born on 7 May 1947 in León, Spain. He spent most of his playing years as a defender in Barcelona and participated in the 1978 World Cup with the Spanish national team.

Football years

During his youth, he trained with Júpiter Leonés in León and Real Valladolid. He started his professional career in Valladolid in 1966, moving to Granada in 1970. After a two-season spell with Granada, he was transferred to Barcelona in 1972 and stayed with the Catalan club until 1979. During this period, they won the league championship in the 1973-74 season, the Spanish Cup in 1978 and the Cup Winners' Cup in 1979. He played nearly 250 matches in nine seasons in La Liga.

He was first called up to the Spanish national team in a special match against Greece in 1972 and played six times until 1978. He was included in the squad for the 1978 World Cup held in Argentina and played in the match lost 2-1 to Austria in the group stage.

technical directorship

After quitting football, he turned to coaching. He coached Sabadell and one of Barcelona's youth teams for many years. He was the manager of Yokohama F. Marinos in Japan between 1998-1999. He took over Barcelona temporarily following the sacking of Louis van Gaal in January 2003; He managed the team for a single match before the arrival of Radomir Antić.