Patricio Escobal

Patricio Pedro Escobal López (24 August 1903 – 25 November 2002), better known as Perico Escobal, was a Spanish footballer who played as a defender for Real Madrid and Racing de Madrid. With the former, he played 82 official matches and won six regional championships.

Early life Patricio Escobal was born on 24 August 1903 in Logroño to a Biscayan father from Galdames and a La Rioja mother from Nalda. He grew up among books and balls dreaming of one day being an engineer in the metropolitan area. He began his studies in his native Logroño, where he attended the first two years of high school, but then he moved to the capital, where he studied at Colegio de Chamartín and later graduated as an engineer while also excelling in football as a youth player at Colegio del Pilar. He was advised to stop actively playing sports and although he remained linked to Madrid as an equipier, he continued playing football for Racing de Madrid, but when Racing withdrew from the championship, he joined CD Nacional de Madrid, and after a short-lived stint there, he finally returned to Real for the 1930–31 season. In the United States, Escobal worked as an engineer and was responsible for the lighting of Queens, for which he was awarded.

After the death of Francisco Franco in Spain, Escobal achieved fame abroad because in 1968, his memoirs appeared in English in 1974 with the title "Death Row" and which, after some clandestine editions, were published in Spanish with the title Las Sacas.

Death Escobal died alone in New York City on 25 November 2002, at the age of 99. His body remained abandoned in the New York morgue for months before someone buried him. In his hometown, Logroño, this fact went unnoticed, even among those who still remembered him as an extraordinary athlete.

A few years later in 2005, with the latest reissue of his autobiography, Las Sacas, his memory returned to this Rioja land. In a brief note on its website in October 2005, Real Madrid reviewed this reissue in an article called "The memoirs of Perico Escobal, Real Madrid captain sentenced to death".

Honours Madrid FC Centro Championship: Winners (6): 1921–22, 1922–23, 1923–24, 1925–26, 1926–27, and 1930–31