Juan José Petit

Juan José Petit

Personal information
Full name	Juan José Petit de Ory
Date of birth	(1896-10-02)2 October 1896
Place of birth	Irun, Gipuzkoa, Spain
Date of death	19 November 1984(1984-11-19) (aged 88)
Place of death	Madrid, Spain
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
1910–1911	Irún Sporting Club
1911–1915	Pilar FC
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1914–1919	Madrid FC
1919–1920	Real Unión
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Juan José Petit de Ory (2 October 1896 – 19 November 1984) was a Spanish footballer who played as a Forward for Madrid FC and Real Unión in the 1910s. He was the brother of fellow Madrid footballer René Petit. He was the only Madrid player who fought in the First World War.

Early life

Petit was born in Irun, Gipuzkoa on 2 October 1896, as the son of a Spanish mother and a French engineer who was a high official of the Company of Railways in Northern Spain, holding the post of head of traffic. He had a younger brother, René, and both had French and Spanish nationality throughout their lives; Juan renounced his French nationality in 1933 and René in 1927.

Playing career

Both brothers spent their childhood between Irún and Hondarribia until the family moved to Madrid in 1911, where they began studying at the prestigious Colegio del Pilar, one of the city's football cradles, where they met other future Real Madrid players such as José María Castell, Manuel Echenique, and Juan Manzanedo. The Petits had their names Castilianized and were known in Spain as Juan and Renato. The great footballing qualities that Juan had already demonstrated at Villa Marta FC in Irun and at the Irún Sporting youth team had not gone unnoticed, so he joined the school team, Pilar FC, and in the 1914–15 season, he helped the Pilar team achieved one of its greatest conquests, the Copa Omnium.

The Petit brothers made themselves noticed during the 1914–15 season, and despite René's early age, he also earned himself a spot on the first team, making his debut for Madrid alongside Juan in a Central Regional Championship match against Sociedad Gimnástica on 15 November 1914, scoring his side's only goal in a 1–3 loss. In the very next match on 29 November, the Petits scored all three in Madrid's 3–2 victory over Atlético Madrid, two from René and one from Juan.

The play that the Petits offered Real Madrid allowed the Whites to take a huge leap in quality, and as a result, Real Madrid was once again fighting for all the titles in play. In the semifinals of the 1916 Copa del Rey, Madrid faced FC Barcelona in the first competitive El Clásico in 14 years, and Petit scored a goal both home and away, which ended in a win and a loss respectively, so he also played in the subsequent two replays, in which Madrid eventually come out on top, thus reaching the final in which he did not play, and without him, Madrid lost 0–4 to Bilbao.

In total, Petit played 22 competitive matches for Madrid, scoring 13 goals.

Later life

At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, he had to briefly go into exile in France because he had showed sympathy for the uprising in Irún, which was in a republican zone. He and his brother Juan were among the many Frenchmen involved in the Spanish Civil War, with Petit volunteering and being appointed responsible for the reconstruction of bridges and the city of Irun, while Juan was a Falangist of the Sagardía Column. In 1937, Francisco Franco ordered the reconstruction of Bilbao's Arenal Bridge, which had been destroyed during the war, and Petit was the chosen engineer to oversee its construction, which ended in June 1938, when a new reinforced concrete bridge was opened.

Honours

Madrid FC

• Centro Championship
  • Winners (3): 1915–16, 1916–17 and 1917–18
• Copa del Rey:
  • Runner-up (1): 1916