Marciano García Arroyo

Marcial García Arroyo (6 March 1930 – 20 March 2021) was a Spanish footballer who played as a defender for CD Toledo and a manager, taking charge of several Tercera División sides, such as CD Logroñés, Deportivo Alavés, and Real Unión in the 1960s. During his time as a coach, he discovered a few international players, such as José Carrete in Salmantino, Isidro, who became a Real Madrid player.

In addition to football, he was also a physical education teacher and a gym owner. At the time, he was the youngest coach in Spain. In the second friendly on 1 September, Alavés drew 2–2 against another third division side SD Amorebieta, and to finalize the team's preparation, García Arroyo organized a mini-tour of Ciudad Real and Madrid, losing 0–5 to Calvo Sotelo Puertollano CF, which had a squad full of Basque footballers, and then losing 0–1 to yet another third division side Rayo Vallecano. being replaced by Juan Urquizu, who in turn was replaced by Manolín at the beginning of the second round in what turned out to be a disastrous season for Alavés, who was relegated to the Third Division with only four wins.

García Arroyo then took charge of Club Hispania de Almería (1963–64), Béjar (1964–65), and Real Unión (1966–67), leading the latter two clubs to a promotion to the second division, but like Logroñés and Alavés, he left before he could finally make his debut there. After Unión, he returned to Logroñés, which was back in the third division, but this time the club finished in eight with 31 points, coaching his last Logroñés match against Mondragón CF on 28 April 1968, which ended in a 4–0 win. He later recalled that during his time at Logroñés, he received 40,000 pesetas as a token and 5,000 pesetas in salary.

In 1969, García Arroyo was then appointed to the helm of UD Plasencia, when the team played in group 8 of the Third Division, and although he could not avoid relegation despite being tenth (that year 12 of the 20 teams were relegated), he decided to continue one more season, now in the Extremadura Preferential Regional, in which Plasencia finished fifth. He went on to manage Béjar (1971–72), Talavera CF (1972–73), CF Salmantino (1973–74), SD Ponferradina (1976–77), Talavera CF (1977–78), SD Gimnástica Arandina (1981–82), and CD Toledo (1982–83), but he was unable to last any longer than a single season in any of them. He was a sports commentator on La Voz del Tajo at the end of the 80s. He also coached Real Ávila CF and in 2014, at the age of 84, he was appointed as manager of Toledo-based CD Pueblanueva.

Outside football In addition to football, García Arroyo was also a physical education teacher and the owner of his gym on Gaspar Duque de Guzmán Street. For twelve years he visited Colombia, through Coldeportes, to give a series of courses and conferences, most notably to national coaches. Between 1973 and 1975 he was director of the Colombian Coaching School with a scholarship from the DND.

As of 2011, he was holding the position of director of the Talavera Coaching School, within the Toledo subdelegation.

Death García Arroyo died in Talavera de la Reina on 20 March 2021, at the age of 91. His funeral took place on the following day at 11 am.