Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Sport, Ethics and Philosophy
Author ORCID Identifier
Francisco Javier López Frías https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7278-7656
Volume
20
Issue
2
Publisher
Routledge
Publication Date
3-17-2026
Journal Article Version
Accepted Manuscript
First Page
216
Last Page
221
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Abstract
Before a crowd of 114,600, Jorge Valdano scored Argentina’s second goal of the 1986 FIFA Men’s World Cup Final. The Albiceleste side, featuring Diego Maradona, went on to defeat West Germany 3–2 to claim the sport’s most coveted trophy. Valdano was then a Real Madrid player, having transferred from Real Zaragoza, following earlier periods at Alavés and Newell’s Old Boys.1 Although illness forced his retirement in 1988, his connection to the game began much earlier, in the informal matches he played growing up in his hometown of Las Parejas in Argentina’s Santa Fe Province. After his playing days ended, Valdano established himself as a respected commentator and later as a coach. He held managerial posts at Tenerife, Real Madrid, and Valencia. The play of his Tenerife team, led by his compatriot Fernando Redondo, is still admired, and his tenure at Real Madrid included the 1994–1995 league title and a landmark 5–0 victory over Barcelona—a goal difference his former team has failed to achieve against their old nemesis ever since. Valdano later served twice as Real Madrid sporting director before returning to broadcasting, where his analytical clarity has earned him the moniker, the ‘philosopher of football’. In his role as a public intellectual of sport, he has published newspaper columns, authored several books, and delivered numerous lectures (Valdano 2001, 2003, 2016). All these activities have cemented his fame as ‘football’s great philosopher’—a description used ‘sometimes as an insult, usually as a compliment, but always with good reason’ (McTear 2017). Valdano is a student of the game who enjoys clarifying ‘that I love football more than I love a team, that I admire any given player more than the greatest manager, that the ball fascinates me as much as the “science” of the game’ (Valdano 2018).
Recommended Citation
Torres, C. R., & López Frías, F. J. (2026). On football and philosophy: an interview with FIFA Men’s World Cup winner and intellectual Jorge Valdano. Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 20(2), 216–221. https://doi.org/10.1080/17511321.2026.2644690
Comments
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/17511321.2026.2644690.