Last update 10 January, 2014 by Julio Muñoz
Few things he resisted Alfredo Di Stéfano throughout his career. Many were the goalkeepers and defenders beaten by a player who dominated the ball with a talent like few have done. However, one of them choked throughout his sporting life: José Mangriñán, “the Motoret”, a defender from Valencia CF, with which don Alfredo had his pluses and minuses.
The continuous ravages that the “Blonde Arrow” used to make the opposing defenses were dried by Mangriñán every time Di Stefano faced the Valencian team. especially, in a match between Real Madrid and Valencia of the season 54-55 which ended in a surprising victory for 1-2. In that match, he “engined” received precise orders to make an iron but clean marking to the man, and total suffocation on the Hispanic-Argentine player. The result was a deranged Di Stefano with no solutions to give his team..The verb gave such excellent dividends that the verb became famous among the people “mangriñear”, a way of expressing how to mark someone very closely, monitor him closely and anticipate his movements until he is canceled and bored.
In fact, imitators came out like the Barcelona player Flotats (from the cover photo) who followed in their wake. The task was always the same. Dry the best player in the world, something in which Mangriñán was a pioneer.