About the book
A definitive biography of Paco Gento, legend of Real Madrid and world football, on the second anniversary of his death.
With the common thread of the figure of Paco Gento, José Luis Llorente Gento, draws a very personal story about a player, an era, a club and a family, drawing on his own first-hand experiences, data and reflections. A book written in very different planes that gradually draw the portrait of a unique human being.
But this is not a conventional biography, nor even a book about a single man, but also about an era and about a club that, guided by Santiago Bernabéu and captained by Alfredo Di Stéfano, would become a reference in world football.
As Gento’s nephew and former Real Madrid basketball player, José Luis Llorente has had access to privileged sources of information, both in the family and in the sporting and institutional sphere, to describe Paco Gento’s role in the construction of the pillars of the most successful club of all time.
«I am fascinated by the way in which Real Madrid became a legendary and global institution, starting almost from misery and from a country as poor as it was cornered by the West. This is my modest contribution to illuminate, even if weakly, the efforts of men driven by the impetus to achieve the unthinkable. And of the role that a boy from Cantabria, prudent and humble, played in this blessed epic that continues its course.
Those were the times of spontaneous athletes, who still lasted many more years in the less popular disciplines. In a similar way to Paco’s vocation, those of Federico Martín Bahamontes, Manolo Santana and Ángel Nieto were forged. Without means, taking advantage of normality, squeezing it, the pioneers built themselves with the force of an unrestrained desire that shaped their hopes as they reached scenarios that their fantasy had not even hinted at.
Source: https://algunoslibrosbuenos.com/gento-real
