Enrique Martín in his time as coach of CD Leganés (Navarre newspaper)
Enrique Martin It is a classic of Spanish football. As a player he became an Osasuna historical with whom he played many games and also scored a good number of goals. As a coach, he led several teams throughout his career, including, in addition to the red set, al CD Leganés.
Precisely in his first season as a cucumber technician, The Navarrese coach went down in history for an action occurred a 24 October 1999 in a match he faced in the Butarque Stadium al CD Leganés and the CD Badajoz. Martín had just signed for the Madrid team that had dismissed José Antonio Fernández due to the poor results obtained in the first 7 days that left the team as bottom of Second Division.
Initially, the arrival of the new coach did not change the situation and the Leganés with Enrique Martin already on the bench he suffered two defeats and a draw that kept him in last position. But the aforementioned match against Badajoz arrived and the Madrid people managed to get ahead on the scoreboard in the minute 89 meeting. It seemed that finally the first victory would come that was more than necessary.
THE 'PLAY’ BY ENRIQUE MARTÍN
In this context and without wanting to excuse the technician, the action that took place shortly after is more understandable. With time almost completed and victory practically in his pocket, Sabino, player CD Badajoz, received a ball in depth with great danger to the goal of Leganés.
Neither short nor lazy, Martin cut the ball as if it were another defender of the team, taking advantage of the fact that the play was passing through the band, a foot from his bench. logically, disbelief seized everyone present who did not believe what had just happened.
Anyway, the action served for the Lega to achieve a vital victory for their interests. logically, the 'play’ had its consequences for the good of Enrique Martin. He was sentenced to 10 matches and had to pay a fine of 500.000 pesetas.
As a curious fact, it should be noted that 20 years later, in a match that pitted the Albacete and the Cultural Leonesa at Carlos Belmonte, Ruben de la Barrera, coach of the visiting team, did the same “pillería” cutting the advance of a La Mancha footballer. The funniest thing about it is that he sat on the local bench Enrique Martin who received his own medicine two decades later.
