Ildefonso Martínez

Ildefonso Martínez Pérez (1873 – 31 August 1968) was a Spanish footballer who is widely regarded as the first known Spanish football player in history.

Having graduated with the highest qualifications within the military academy, he became not only a military advisor to King Alfonso XII, but also the lieutenant colonel of the general staff, the highest position attainable in the Spanish army.

Early life Ildefonso Martínez was born in La Palma del Condado, Huelva, in 1873, as the son of Eduardo Martínez, an engineer from Madrid, and Dolores Pérez, who belonged to a wealthy family from La Palma. His father had left the Spanish capital after being hired by German businessmen Guillermo Sundheim to work on constructing the Huelva-Seville railway.

Sporting career During his youth, Martínez stood out as a great athlete, especially in regattas, but he soon was driven by a strong desire to learn all of these new sports that the British were bringing to Huelva, thus forming close friendships the members of the British colony of Huelva, which allowed him to become familiar with English sports, such as cricket and football, which had been regularly played in Huelva since 1884, which took place in a large area of marshes filled with flooded soil, opposite to the Gas Factory run by fellow Scotsman Charles Wilson Adam. This invitation means that he already was a regular on the gas factory grounds; even though he was still only 15 at the time, he already had an impressive physique, which he had developed through his rowing in the regattas. He seems to have never played for Recreativo, although his name appears in its first-ever list of club members on 20 December 1889.

Martínez died in 1968, at the age of 95.