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Óscar
Personal information
Full name	Óscar Rodríguez López
Date of birth	10 June 1903
Place of birth	Avilés, Asturias, Spain
Date of death	21 June 1976 (aged 73)
Position(s)	center-forward
Senior career*
Years	Team
1920–1940	Racing de Santander
1940–1941	UD Salamanca
International career
1924–1925	Cantabria
1925–1927	Spain
1927	Spain B
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Óscar Rodríguez López (10 June 1903 in Avilés – 21 June 1976), simply known as Óscar, was a Spanish footballer who played as a center-forward.^[1] Despite being deaf, he developed his entire football career at Racing de Santander, a team of which he is the all-time top scorer.^[2]

Club career

The son of a fisherman from Vigo and a woman from Avilés, he moved to Santander when he was sixteen years old, and there he began his career with Racing de Santander in 1920, at the age of 17, going on to play for them for the next two decades. A center-forward with a powerful shot, fast and very combative, he is considered by many to be the most important finisher in the history of Racing, with a total of 236 goals in just 211 official matches.^{[citation needed]} In 1929 his goals were decisive in the qualifying phase to decide the tenth team that would participate in the first-ever National championship season in 1929.^[3] He was the driving force behind Santander in the 1920s and 1930s, helping the club win 13 Cantabrian Championships. His goals played a pivotal role in helping the club finish runner-up in the 1930–31 La Liga season.

Besides his natural ability to put the ball in the back of the net, he also fell in love with his soon-to-be wife after dedicating a goal to her in a game in 1925, with whom he married a few months later. The epitaph on his tomb still reads: "Here lies, eternally in love, the greatest goalscorer of Real Racing Club".^[4]

International career

Being a player of Racing de Santander, he was eligible to play for the Cantabria national team, and he was one of the eleven footballers that played in the team's first-ever game on 9 March 1924, a 3–0 win over Aragon, and he was also the first professional football player registered in Cantabria after the admission of professionalism in 1926.^{[citation needed]} Óscar scored twice in a 3–3 draw with Asturias on 3 May 1925.

Óscar earned two international caps for the Spain national team, making his debut on 17 May 1925 in a friendly against Portugal which ended in a 2-0 win.^[5] He had to wait two years for his second and last cap, which was held at El Sardinero on 17 April 1927 against Switzerland, and Óscar scored the only goal of the game in a 1–0 win.^[6] He also earned a cap for the Spanish B team on 29 May 1927, in a friendly against the Portugal A side, which ended in a 2-0 win.^[7]

Honours

International

Racing de Santander

Cantabrian Championship
- Champions (13): 1922–23, 1923–24, 1924–25, 1925–26, 1926–27, 1927–28, 1928–29, 1929–30, 1930–31, 1932–33, 1933–34, 1938–39 and 1939–40
La Liga:
- Runner-up (1): 1930–31

References

^ "Óscar Rodríguez López - Footballer". www.bdfutbol.com. Archived from the original on 28 June 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
^ "Máximos goleadores en la historia del Racing" [Top scorers in the history of Racing]. www.bdfutbol.com. Archived from the original on 19 April 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
^ "1929: El Racing de Santander, verdugo del Sevilla, por dos veces" [1929: Racing de Santander, executioner of Sevilla, twice]. www.cihefe.es. 1 March 2015. Archived from the original on 20 June 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
^ "El gol de la novia" [The bride's goal]. www.eldiariomontanes.es. El Diario Montañés. 19 April 2013. Archived from the original on 22 May 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
^ "Óscar Rodríguez López". eu-football.info. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
^ "Spain vs Switzerland, 17 April 1927". eu-football.info. Archived from the original on 10 May 2022. Retrieved 8 July 2022.
^ "España - Portugal (2 - 0) 29/05/1927". www.bdfutbol.com. Archived from the original on 31 May 2022. Retrieved 9 July 2022.