Manuel Santacatalina

Manuel Santacatalina Ferreres (1914 – 9 February 1936) was a Spanish footballer who played as a midfielder for Valencia CF.

Biography Nicolás Santacatalina was born in Puerto de Sagunto, Valencian, in 1914, as the son of Rosa Ferreres and Eustaquio de Santa Catalina, a hard-working laborer, It was he who enchanted the sport of football to Nicolás, one of his younger brothers, who later also played top division matches for Valencia. He was a tall, strong midfielder with a somewhat rough style of play, whom Valencia coach Antonín Fivébr tried to refine so that his technique would be similar to that of Carlos Iturraspe. He made his debut in a 4–2 loss to Sevilla in the First Division on 17 March 1935; he only played three league games that season.

Santacatalina continued with Valencia to play the following season, but he died unexpectedly of a poorly cured pneumonia on 9 February 1936, at the age of 22, just a few months before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. According to some media of the time, the illness was caused by a cold water shower after training; this case was quite a shock in the Valencian community and his brother Nicolás had a hard time convincing his parents to let him continue playing football.