Genaro de la Riva i Ruiz

Genaro de la Riva Ruiz (9 September 1890 - 25 February 1968) was a Spanish athlete who performed several modalities such as foil, sailing, cricket, field hockey and footballer who played as a midfielder for RCD Espanyol and Catalonia. He was one of the most important figures in the history of RCD Espanyol, both as a player and President of the club, serving as the latter on three separate occasions (1920–22, 1925–30 and 1933–42) for a total of 16 years at the helm of the club. His brothers Victorià and Santiago were also presidents of RCD Espanyol, a society that the three la Riva brothers presided for many years, paying for and maintaining the economy of the club mostly from their own pocket.

International career Like many other RCD Espanyol players of that time, de la Riva was eligible to play for the Catalonia national team, earning one cap in a friendly against France on 1 December 1912, in which he clutched the game's only goal in a 1–0 win.

Club presidency He was president of Espanyol on three different periods, 1920–1922, 1925–1930 and 1933–1942. But the biggest problem was an eviction order for the non-payment of the Muntaner street field, Espanyol’s football field at the time. The club had already failed at doing this with some tours that took the team through the north of Spain, Portugal and the Canary Islands, but this time the project of la Riva, who had become president for the second time just the year before, was much more ambitious, He prepared Espanyol’s tour in great detail, with commitments contracted in advance and with the claim of the presence of the then legendary Ricardo Zamora in goal, and la Riva himself travelled with the group, which consisted of 12 club players and seven more borrowed from other entities, who played matches in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru and Cuba with attendances as high as 60,000. Under la Riva, Espanyol was one of the ten founding clubs of the Spanish League in 1929,

Death He died in a traffic accident in February 1968, at the age of 83, along with his sister Mercedes, on a road in the north of Almería.

Honours Club RCD Espanyol Catalan championship: Champions (1): 1911–12