Ricardo Zulueta

Ricardo Zulueta Echevarria (8 October 1907 – 7 September 1937) was a Spanish footballer who played as a defender for Atlético Madrid and Nacional de Madrid.

Early life Ricardo Zulueta was born in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, on 8 October 1907, as the son of Adolfo Juan de Zulueta y Ruiz de Gámiz and María de los Dolores de Echevarría y Díaz de Mendívil.

Career Zulueta signed for the rojiblanco club in the 1927–28 season, making his debut in a 1928 Copa del Rey group stage match against Athletic Bilbao on 11 March 1928, starting as a goalkeeper in a 2–4 loss. In two years there, he played mostly as a substitute and only made three appearances in the newly-formed La Liga.

On 7 June 1936, Zulueta played with Nacional de Madrid against the Railway Sports Group in an amateur tournament while the coup d'état that was going to precipitate the Spanish Civil War was being plotted.

His father was a small merchant who supported the Second Spanish Republic, and on 20 July 1936, he placed himself at the disposal of the Madrid government and against fascism, joining the police force. In early April 1939, he was arrested by the Francoists and locked up in the Almagro police station in the Chamberí neighborhood, where he was tortured for 15 days with four or five beatings a day. He unsuccessfully attempted suicide, so he was locked up in the Yeserías Prison, where the prisoners themselves treated the multiple wounds that his body had received, which is the last known whereabouts of the Zulueta family.