| Leopoldo García Durán | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Name: | Leopoldo García-Durán Parages Golmar | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Date: | 15 November 1882 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | As Neves, Galicia, Spain | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Death Place: | Madrid, Spain | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Citizenship: | Spanish | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Known For: | 8th president of the Spanish Football Federation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Leopoldo García-Durán Parages Golmar (15 November 1882 – 16 April 1966) was a Spanish lawyer, sports leader, and politician who served as a Deputy of Spain during the restoration and as the 8th president of the Spanish Football Federation between 1931 and 1936.[1] He also played football in his youth as a midfielder for Madrid FC.[2] [3]
Leopoldo García Durán was born in As Neves, Galicia, on 15 November 1882, as the son of, a merchant and politician.[4] He studied high school at the Escolapios school in Celanova and then studied law at the Central University of Madrid. He worked in the office of Gabino Bugallal and was appointed public prosecutor of the Madrid Court.[5]
While he was studying in the capital, García Durán joined the ranks of Madrid FC as a midfielder, being part of some of the first starting elevens in the club's history.[6] For instance, in the club's first-ever complete season, in 1902–03, he played in three friendly matches between February and April 1903.[7] On 12 March 1905, he scored his first goal for the club in a 3–2 victory over Moncloa FC, again in a friendly.[8] In the following month, on 16 April 1905, he finally made his competitive debut for Madrid, the opening match of the 1905 Copa del Rey, helping his side to a 3–0 victory over San Sebastián Recreation Club, but he did not feature in the final against Athletic Bilbao, which Madrid won 1–0.[8] [9] He can be traced in the first elevens of the white team until 1909,[6] when he played in the first three matches of the 1909 Centro regional championship, winning his last one against Sociedad Gimnástica 4–2.[10]
After football came politics, and on six occasions García Durán was elected deputy in the Cortes as a member of the Conservative Party.[6] The first time, held on 8 March 1914, he was elected for Alicante, and in the next five times, he was deputy for the district of O Carballiño in the province of Ourense in the elections of 1916, 1918, 1919, 1920, and 1923.[6] [11] In his 1920 election, he got 2,091 votes to the 2,468 of José Calvo Sotelo, who thus contested and protested since García Durán's proclamation was "maintained with an incomplete... and imperfect scrutiny... and with violation of the criteria repeatedly established by the Supreme Court".[12] On 4 April 1922 he was appointed director general of prisons, a position in which he remained until December 11 of that year. He held many other public positions, including that of general inspector of the Stamp.[13] He was part of the board of directors of Alicante's Strategic and Secondary Railways.
He alternated his professional and political activities with his sports ones.[13] In 1931, García Durán was appointed as the 8th president of the Spanish Football Federation, a position that he held for five years until 1936, when he resigned with the victory of the Popular Front, and was replaced by Julián Troncoso.[1] [14] Under his leadership, the Spanish national team made its debut in a FIFA World Cup, in the 1934 edition in Italy, and he was also the first president of the Federation who devised setting a match between the League champion and the Cup champion, the so-called Spanish Super Cup, but their idea was destroyed by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.[6] This project only came to fruition in 1940 with the Copa de los Campeones de España, which was won by Athletic-Aviation Club.[6]
García Durán was also the director of the Patronato de Apuestas Mútuas Deportivas Benéficas (Charitable Sports Mutual Betting Board).[13]
García Durán was Viscount Consort of Matamala by marriage to Countess María del Carmen de Marichalar y Bruguera,[4] [6] with whom he had three daughters Carmen, María Teresa, and María Asunción.[4]
García Durán died in Madrid on 16 April 1966, at the age of 83.[13] He was a Knight of the Order of Isabella the Catholic and had other national and foreign decorations.[13]