José Luis Gallegos Arnosa

José Luis Gallegos Arnosa (1880 – 1942) was a Spanish shipowner and commercial agent. He is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the amateur beginnings of Sevilla FC, having been the fundamental head behind the registration of the club, which had been founded in 1890, in the Civil Registry of the province of Seville in 1905, thus finally making it an official football club, the first of such in the city of Seville. He then became the first official president of legalized Sevilla FC, a position that he held for three years between 1905 and 1908, and to which he returned on an interim basis on several occasions.

Early life and education Gallegos was born in 1880 in Jerez de la Frontera, Andalusia, as the son of Adolfo Gallegos, a winery foreman, and Petra Arnosa. He was the second of four children, including an older brother Adolfo who died at the age of 22, and two younger sisters, María and Petra. His fathers' work as an expert in wine production and cellar caretaker was recognized in Cádiz and also Seville, from where he received an important offer, so the family moved to there around the 1890s or at the beginning of the century. He then moved to Liverpool, where he trained as a commercial expert, a career that he would ultimately not pursue.

During his four-year stay in Great Britain, Gallegos became a polyglot due to his ease in the study of languages, so much so that he managed to learn English, French, and German in just four years there. His position at the port also allowed him to meet various shipping businessmen, especially Edward F. Johnston, the British vice-council in Seville since 1879, and who had presided Sevilla FC in the early 1890s, as well as joining the Círculo Mercantil de Seville where he held various positions, including the head of its library section, and where he met some of the most notable residents of the city, such as José Montes Sierra, Federico de La Portilla, the banker Tomás de La Calzada,

Gallegos returned to Seville with great knowledge about the sport of football, and thus he began organizing numerous meetings between the local youth, even giving classes on theories and rules to develop that game in Seville. These matches were held almost clandestinely since this sport was persecuted by the municipal authorities not only because it was considered an unseemly activity in the traditional Sevillian society, but also because they were considered indecorous due to their clothing and noise.

At the end of 1904, however, Gallegos began promoting and championing this sport, The club officially established its headquarters on Sierpes Street.

President of the Sevilla Football Club The club was also known as Sociedad de Football until the beginning of the 1910s because at the time it was the only society dedicated to football in the city, and thus, they only resumed its name as Sevilla FC in 1908, after the creation of the Sevilla Balompié, a team founded by the sons of senior Sevillian soldiers of the time. Once he left the presidency in 1908, Gallegos continued to be closely linked to the club and even became interim president of the entity for a few months in 1909. Gallegos then had a second term between 11 October 1913 and January 1914, motivated by the departure of José María Miró. Years later, on 29 February 1914, in an interview with the local magazine El Fígaro, Gallegos stated that "the beginnings of 10 years ago were very difficult", being a very important contribution to the annals of Sevilla History. In 1941, he provided his valuable testimony for the first book of Sevilla history, published that year by the former Sevilla director Arturo Otero.

Other sports In addition to football, Gallegos became the sports patron of the city, promoting all the sporting initiatives that arose in Seville, such as the aforementioned Club Náutico or Sociedad de Sport Sevillano, which never took off. Just like Johnston, Gallegos also briefly worked as a referee.

In 1906, Seville was visited by the Catalan sports journalist Narciso Masferrer, a very influential figure at the time, who wanted to inquire about the city's football activity, but Dr. , who had developed football in the city through his position as a physical education teacher at the San Isidoro Institute, only mentioned a British group who had been playing in the Prado de San Sebastián since the turn of the century, thus completely ignoring Gallegos's Sevilla. Annoyed by this, Gallegos went on to pay him back in the same coin, when in 1914, in an interview with El Fígaro, he stated that there was no football in the city before 1904, thus disregarding all the work carried out by López; this quarrel lasted for several years.

Personal life Gallegos married Soledad Bellido Caro (1889–1980), with whom he had three daughters: María Luisa, Josefina, and María del Carmen. His home was located in the famous , specifically, on Avenida de los Teatinos, number 40.

A religious man, Gallegos was linked to the Brotherhood of the Great Power of Seville and also to the Brotherhood of the Lord of Seville, where his first-born grandson was baptized in 1937.

Death A heavy smoker, Gallegos died in Seville in 1942, at the age of 62, as a result of a serious lung condition. One of his great-grandsons, Enrique Parrilla, founded the Seville-based technology company Lantia, which became an international reference in the publishing industry.