Andrés Jaso Garde

Andrés Jaso Garde (2 April 1912 – October 1937) was a Spanish footballer who played as a forward for Osasuna and Valencia.

Career Andrés Jaso was born in the Navarra town of Mélida on 2 April 1912, as the third of five brothers from a humble, peasant family. In his town, he began to stand out for his talent with the ball, making his debut with Sporting Melidés in 1928, aged 16, in a match against Luchana de Pamplona. He caught the attention of FC Barcelona, who showed interest in signing him, but he instead chose to join Valencia in 1934. According to the local press of the time, this frustrated career in big teams was the result of Jaso being "more focused on love than on football".

Death His career was cut short by the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, during which all traces of him were lost, although certain sources suggest that he died during an air raid from the national side's aviation, probably on the beach of Cangas de Onís in Gijón, where he was training with his Sporting teammates. Jaso was able to spend the summer of 1937 with his girlfriend, a fashion designer, and his friends from the team, and there is even photographic documents that show him playing a game with friends wearing an uncertain shirt: either that of Estrella Roja de Ceares or that of Estrella de Gijón.

One of his nieces, Áurea Jaso, searched for the bodies of her father and her uncles since she was a child until as late as 2020, aged 93. After months of investigation, it was believed that it was possible to find their remains in a mass grave in Cangas de Onís to finally give them a decent burial after more than eighty years of disappearance. To this end, Áurea launched, with the help of people committed to Historical Memory, a campaign called "Andrés Jaso Project, the missing footballer".