CD Castellón’s first, heroic promotion to Primera División remembered | OneFootball

On 2 May 1941 at Chamartín, CD Castellón sealed their first promotion to Primera División as Vicente Hernández struck on 84 minutes after Zaragoza had levelled at 2-2.

El Periódico Mediterráneo recounts the day and the figures behind it. Castellón had led 2-0 through Basilio Nieto and Arnau, then suffered a Miguel Martínez own goal and the equaliser. With Pizá injured and no changes allowed, Safont broke and crossed for Hernández, known as El Valencianet, to finish the counter.

Hernández’s team included two friends from Nules, goalkeeper Antonio Pérez and defender Martínez, who joined in 1940 and cycled to training. Famished one day, they stopped at a fig tree, only for the owner to confront them. Hearing they played for Castellón, he told them to eat as many as they liked.

Pérez, imprisoned after the war in a concentration camp, became a celebrated goalkeeper. Centre forward Basilio, aged 24 and on military service in Castelló, had previously won a Railways job but turned it down and signed through his friend Pizá. He scored 23, then 24, then 25 goals, figures that vary in the records, and is still the club’s all-time top scorer.

In Madrid they were without Guillén and Antoñito. The final act saw Pérez grasp the last ball one-handed before the whistle, and Martínez, distraught earlier over his own goal, was first to embrace him. Teodoro Mauri’s XI read Pérez, Selma, Martínez, Medrano, Safont, Santolaria, Antolí, Pizá, Basilio, Hernández and Arnau.

Source: El Periódico Mediterráneo