Tonín Conde

Tonín Conde

Personal information
Full name	Antonio Conde Aja
Date of birth	(1909-12-04)4 December 1909
Place of birth	Puerto de Sagunto, Valencia, Spain
Date of death	26 April 1984(1984-04-26) (aged 74)
Place of death	Unknown
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
	Atlético Saguntino
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
–1930	Atlético Saguntino
1930–1937	Valencia	229	(29)
1939–1940	Hércules
1942–1944	Granada
1944–1945	Real Betis
Managerial career
1946–1947	Granada
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Antonio Conde Aja, better known as Tonín Conde (4 December 1909 – 26 April 1984), was a Spanish footballer who played as a midfielder for Valencia CF in the 1930s and Granada in the 1940s. After his retirement, he became a manager, briefly taking charge of Granada in 1946–47.

Playing career

Valencia CF

Born in Puerto de Sagunto on 4 December 1909, Conde began his football career in the youth ranks of his hometown club Atlético Saguntino, where he stood out as a left winger, eventually becoming the club's star and thus catching the attention of Luis Colina, who signed him for Valencia in the summer of 1930, aged 21.

Conde was a fast and combative player, somewhat anarchic technically, but with a lot of goals, and despite his youth, his attitude on the field quickly won him the sympathy of the demanding Valencia fans, especially when on 23 November 1930, in the last day of the Valencia Regional Championship, he managed to score the winning goal with a header against Castellón, which allowed the Mestalla team to win the title. On the pitch, he used to wear the typical scarf of the time on his head, which gave him a distinctive look at Mestalla. He was a man of character on and off the field, and more than once he had differences with the board due to grievances in his contract; for instance, in 1933, the players Conde and Antonio Sánchez were declared in rebellion after asking for a salary increase of 450 and 550 pesetas, respectively.

Over time, Conde gained experience and technical rigor as well as defensive strength and intensity in attack, with his goal-scoring ability being far superior to that of the average midfielder. In the 1932–33 La Liga, Valencia was only able to avoid relegation on the last matchday of the season, in which Abdón helped his team hold direct-rivals Deportivo Alavés to a 1–1 draw. In the following season, he scored an important goal against his future club Hércules in the second leg of the quarter-finals of the 1934 Copa del Rey, thus helped his side reach the final, which ended in a 1–2 loss to Madrid FC. In 1934, he was mentioned as a possible choice for the Spanish national team, but the rumor never materialized in the form of a call-up.

Conde remained in the first team for seven seasons (1930–37), scoring a total of 29 goals in 229 official games.

Later career

Politically active, Conde was a left-wing militant and a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), and during the Spanish Civil War, he helped Alfredo Giménez Buesa escape Republican repression and take refuge in Serra. In 1938, at the end of the War, he was imprisoned in San Miguel de los Reyes, along with the former president José Rodríguez Tortajada. He left six months later to play half a season with Hércules in the First Division, but was soon imprisoned again.

Finally, in January 1942, he was released from prison, but exiled from Valencia, so he emigrated to Andalusia, where he played two seasons for Granada and one for Real Betis. In total, Conde scored 6 goals in 123 La Liga matches.

Managerial career

In 1946, shortly after hanging his boots, Conde became the coach of his former club Granada, then in the Second Division, which he led in 25 matches.

Death

Conde died on 26 April 1984, at the age of 74.

Honours

Valencia CF

Valencia Championship:

• Winners (4) 1930, 1932, 1933, and 1934

Copa del Rey:

• Runner-up (1) 1934