Madrid great Grosso dies at 58

Former Real Madrid CF player Ramón Grosso died on Tuesday night in Madrid at the age of 58 after losing his long battle with cancer.

Farewell to a legend
Several former Madrid players gathered at the Cemtro clinic in Madrid to pay tribute to Grosso and a mass will be held at the hospital on Wednesday evening in his honour. The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) have also announced that a minute’s silence will be observed prior to Wednesday's friendly between Spain and Portugal, and that the Spanish players will wear black armbands to honour the former international.

Illustrious career
Born on 8 December 1943, he joined the Madrid youth scheme at the age of 15, and played for the first team from 1964 to 1976. In all he played 473 games for the club, scored 96 goals and won seven Spanish league titles, three Spanish Cups and one European Champion Clubs’ Cup.

Final game
Additionally, he played 14 internationals for Spain between 1967 and 1970. His last match as an active player was on 31 August 1976 against SK Slavia Praha, when he was substituted in favour of Vicente Del Bosque, currently the head coach of Madrid. Grosso remained in the technical staff at the club and worked as an assistant to coaches such as Leo Beenhaaker and John Toshack among others.

Di Stéfano’s heir
Grosso had the difficult task of replacing the legendary Alfredo Di Stéfano at Madrid. However he proudly inherited the number nine jersey from one of the best players in the world and was top scorer in the Spanish league for two consecutive seasons, scoring 27 goals in 28 matches in 1964/65 and eleven goals in 29 games in 1965/66.

Puskás advice
It was during these two seasons that Grosso played with another Madrid star, the Hungarian Ferenc Puskás. When Grosso made it to the first team in Madrid, Puskas told him: "Listen kid, you only have to do one thing, look for the fat player, but the one wearing the white shirt of course, pass the ball to his foot and run forward without worrying about anything else." This piece of advice worked perfectly.

The ultimate victory
The following year, Grosso was in the side that won the European Champion Clubs’ Cup final against FK Partizan in Brussels. This victory was Madrid's sixth in the competition. During the following seasons, Grosso played in several different positions for the team – once he even appeared as a goalkeeper during a summer tournament in Spain. For his versatility as well as his goalscoring achievements, Grosso will be much missed.