Isidro Corbinos Pontaque

Isidro Corbinos Pantoque (15 May 1894 – 30 January 1966) was a Spanish footballer who played as a midfielder for FC Barcelona in the mid-1910s. He later worked as a sports journalist for several Spanish newspapers, including Mundo Deportivo and La Vanguardia.

After the Civil War, he went into exile in Chile, where he revolutionized sports journalism, being honoured by having an award that distinguishes the best journalists in the country named after him.

Early life and education Born in Aragon town of Zaragoza on 15 May 1894, Corbinos was 15 years old when he subscribed to a "Universal Encyclopedia" that published in weekly installments, which ceased to exist around the letter F, leading Corbinos to later jokingly remark "that his self-taught culture only reached that letter".

Playing career Corbinos began his career in 1914, when he played two matches for Barça's first team, a friendly against L'Avenç del Sport on 23 August, scoring a goal in a 2–0 victory, and a Catalan championship match against Català on 20 December, helping his side to a 7–0 trashing. He later also played for Catalònia de Manresa between 1915 and 1917. According to a review in La Veu de Catalunya in April 1915, he had a "convincing and engaging writing style".

Journalistic career Spain Once he retired, Corbinos began his journalistic career as an editor of La Tribuna, a small Catalan newspaper, responsible for the obituary page, where he updated deaths, announced wakes, and occasionally wrote memorials. He went on to work as an editor for several renowned Spanish newspapers in Barcelona, such as Jornada Deportiva (1923), La Noche (1926), , Mundo Deportivo, and La Vanguardia, where he was editor-in-chief. He also worked as editor for Excelsior in Bilbao (1926), which he also directed twice, first in 1928 and again from 1929 to 1931. His republican ideas caused him to send his wife and daughter to Igualada, from where they crossed the border to France, while Corbinos did it on foot, through the Pyrenees, reuniting with them in Paris.

Death and legacy In January 1966, the 71-year-old Corbinos was writing a football report when he suffered a stroke at his home in Santiago, dying a few days later, on 30 January 1966.

In 2019, Corbinos' memoirs as a correspondent during the Civil War were compiled into a book called Pasaje al limbo (Passage to Limbo).