José Eulogio Gárate Atlético Madrid profile, career and honours

The striker of the golden decade

José Eulogio Gárate joined Atlético Madrid in 1966, the year the club moved to the Vicente Calderón, and stayed until 1977. He scored 136 goals in 325 appearances and was in the side for every trophy of the club’s most productive era.

Three league championships, in 1969–70, 1972–73 and 1976–77. Two Copas del Rey, in 1971–72 and 1975–76. The 1974 Intercontinental Cup.

The only player present for all three of those titles

Luis Aragonés won the 1965–66, 1969–70 and 1972–73 championships and left in 1975, before the fourth. Adelardo won the same three and finished in 1976, also before 1976–77.

Gárate arrived a season after 1965–66 and stayed a season past 1976–77, which means he is the one name in the legends gallery present for the three titles that closed the era, and the last player on this site to have won a league championship before the nineteen-year drought that followed.

Brussels

He was in the squad for the 1974 European Cup final against Bayern Munich, the 1–1 draw in which Aragonés scored in extra time and Georg Schwarzenbeck equalised in the last minute, followed by the 4–0 replay defeat.

The Intercontinental Cup that followed came because Bayern declined to play it. Atlético lost 1–0 away to Independiente and won the return 2–0 in Madrid, taking a trophy as beaten European finalists. The three-finals page treats the pair together.

Where the goals sit

136 places him fourth among the forwards in the gallery, behind Antoine Griezmann on 212, Aragonés on 173 and Adrián Escudero on 169, and ahead of Fernando Torres on 129.

The four names above and immediately below him span 1945 to the present, which is the point: the club’s scoring hierarchy is not concentrated in any one era, and three of the top five played before 1980.

The last title for nineteen years

The 1976–77 championship was Gárate’s final season and Atlético’s last for almost two decades. The next came in 1995–96, the Double under Radomir Antić with Kiko and Milinko Pantić in the side.

Everything between belongs to the 1987–1995 era and the years before it: two Copas del Rey, a European Cup Winners’ Cup final lost in 1986, and no league title at all. The league record shows the gap plainly.

The shape of the career

Eleven seasons, six major honours, a European Cup final and an intercontinental title, at one club, in the decade the era page counts as producing four championships in twelve seasons against seven in the remaining ninety years.

Gárate did not hold a record and is not the era’s most cited name. That is Aragonés, for one free-kick. What he has is the most complete set of medals from the club’s best period, collected by being there for the whole of it.

Eleven seasons, one club, one era

Gárate’s career is almost exactly coextensive with the Vicente Calderón at its best. He arrived in 1966, the year the ground opened, and left in 1977, at the end of the last title-winning season it would host for nineteen years.

That coincidence is why he is difficult to separate from the stadium in accounts of the period. The ground’s reputation as a difficult, loud, awkward place to visit was built in the decade he played there, and the results that built it are the ones on his medal list.

The era page counts what the twelve seasons from 1965–66 produced: four championships and two cups, against seven other titles in the remaining ninety years of the club’s existence.

A hundred and thirty-six goals

The total is the fourth-highest among the forwards on this site and the highest of any player whose entire Atlético career was spent at the Calderón. Every name above him either predates the ground or postdates its demolition.

How many goals did Garate score for Atletico Madrid?

136 in 325 appearances between 1966 and 1977, fourth among the forwards in the club's legends gallery.

What did Jose Eulogio Garate win with Atletico?

Three La Liga titles (1969–70, 1972–73, 1976–77), two Copas del Rey (1971–72, 1975–76) and the 1974 Intercontinental Cup.

Was Garate part of the 1974 European Cup final?

Yes. Atlético drew 1–1 with Bayern Munich in Brussels and lost the replay 4–0. The Intercontinental Cup followed months later when Bayern declined to contest it.

When did Atletico last win the league before the long drought?

In 1976–77, Gárate's final season. The next championship came in 1995–96, a gap of nineteen years, the longest in the club's history.