by Gilbaldo » Tue Aug 29, 2023 9:38 am
By Michael Grant in today's Times...
The autumn of 2009 was unremarkable in the history of Hamilton Academical. Their first three games in the Scottish Premier League were 3-0, 3-0 and 4-1 defeats by Kilmarnock, Aberdeen and Rangers and they went out of the League Cup to Ross County. So far, so humdrum. The four-game period is notable only for a name which now stands out in the Accies team. In defence, the little club from Lanarkshire had a certain Luis Rubiales.
Unlike World Cup final medal ceremonies — Spain prosecutors have since opened a preliminary investigation into Rubiales for kissing player Jenni Hermoso — Rubiales passed through Scottish football without incident. Those four games were all he played under the Accies manager Billy Reid, who was subsequently Graham Potter’s assistant at Swansea City, Brighton & Hove Albion and Chelsea. Rubiales was a strapping defender, bald-headed even then, but having signed a one-year contract he quickly decided he wanted to return to Spain.
After the defeat by Rangers at Ibrox he was named Hamilton’s man of the match, only to come into the media room and surprisingly announce his retirement. It was the week of his 32nd birthday. A mutual agreement was reached with Hamilton and Rubiales returned to work for one of his former clubs, Levante, before later becoming president of the Spanish players’ union and — now infamously — the Spanish FA.
Accies’ long-serving former chairman, Ronnie MacDonald, remembers Rubiales well, and fondly. “We were casting around trying to find players,” he said. “We got him in from Spain. He was a good player. He was a proper professional, a really, really fit guy.
“He was always quite a specimen. I was thinking ‘what’s this guy doing here’. He had various aspirations and wanted a personal masseuse and stuff like that. That wasn’t the level we were at. That wasn’t exactly the Ronnie MacDonald way. We had a team of grafters.
“To be fair he was a very educated and reasonable guy. His team ethic was good as well. He never caused me any bother at all. He was brand new. He was a proper player and a proper gent, for want for a better word.
“He was obviously a bright guy. He played for us and I think we lost our first three league games which wasn’t exactly a good look and we parted ways. He wanted to go back abroad because, ultimately, he became head of the Spanish players’ union. Suddenly he was at the Spanish FA and sacking [Julen] Lopetegui [Spain’s men’s manager on the eve of the 2018 World Cup], so he has a bit of history for being confrontational.
“He was a proper guy to work with, a proper gentleman, polite to everyone. I could never have guessed he would be involved in something like this. You never know what’s coming next . . . although at Hamilton Accies there was always something coming.”
