Name: Fidel Uriarte Macho



Country: Spain
Club: Athletic Bilbao
Number: 8; 6; 10
Position: *CMF, AMF, SS
Side: LF/BS
Age: 23-28 years (01/03/1945)

Height: 175 cm
Weight: 74 kg

Attack: 81
Defence: 48
Balance: 79
Stamina: 88
Top Speed: 83
Acceleration: 80
Response: 84
Agility: 81
Dribble Accuracy: 80
Dribble Speed: 77
Short Pass Accuracy: 87
Short Pass Speed: 78
Long Pass Accuracy: 82
Long Pass Speed: 76
Shot Accuracy: 83
Shot Power: 79
Shot Technique: 86
Free Kick Accuracy: 64
Curling: 73
Header: 87
Jump: 90
Technique: 86
Aggression: 78
Mentality: 82
Goalkeeper Skills: 50
Team Work: 82

Injury Tolerance: B
Condition/Fitness: 7
Weak Foot Accuracy: 4
Weak Foot Frequency: 4
Consistency: 6
Growth type: Standard


CARDS:
P15 - Free Roaming
S01 - Marauding
S02 - Passer
S06 - Outside Curve

SPECIAL ABILITIES: Playmaking - Tactical Dribble - Reaction - Passing - Scoring - Outside

Attack/Defence Awareness Card: Attack-Minded


INFO:
"The best Athletic player in the last 50 years" according to the authoritative opinion of José Ángel Iribar. "Fidel had it all: technique, great passing, a powerful left-footed shot, unmatched as a header and the most generous in his effort". He was also called "A lung for the midfield" &"Ally of the air" ((They say that 73% of his goals were with his head).

He was very complete. He had a long way to go, in fact he finished the games exhausted, it was his way of playing. He had tremendous energy. A midfielder with a long history with arrival and a spectacular header. One of the things that caught attention the most about his game was his outside shot with his left foot. It was impressive.
His vision of the game was undoubted. At Málaga, already in the final stretch of his career, he ended up as a libero.

He was powerful, he had a touch, he reached the goal like a cyclone, he was a fearsome kicker and probably the best header of the 60s. He was not tall (he was 1.75 meters tall) but he headed with vice, supported by a vertical stop that allowed him to overcome the centre-backs. They did not lack a phenomenal supplier: Txetxu Rojo, the left winger with a glove on his left foot. He was a second-arrival goalscorer. It was what is now called the interior left. For defenders it is always more difficult to stop players who come in from the back. He has been one of Athletic's great goalscorers. Very fast, great passing range (short passing better overall than long/weighted passing - as he would cut the defenses with through passes). Occasionally would drop back to defence but wasn't really a defensive player overall. Highly technical player, with a decent dribble but lower dribble speed. In the national team, he acted more as an orchestrator and true central midfielder, directing the game from there, while in Athletic he was also used as a second striker and attacking midfielder.

The left-footed player from Sestaoarra was a great scorer, although not a striker. Nor is he a fine stylist. Uriarte was a force of nature, physical and mental, who covered the field from area to area - a "box to box" player as the Anglo-Saxons would say - with optimism as his flag and the rival goal between his eyebrows and his eyebrows. In the elite he started as a ''6'', continued as a ''10'' and, when it was necessary to make room for the then more than promising Javi Clemente, he finished as ''8''. Attacking midfielder, but with an all-rounder vocation, Uriarte was so much in possession of the number 10 that Txetxu Rojo, interior by nature, had to become a left winger. They formed a high-flying wing, one of the most admired in the history of Athletic. Rojo's subtlety connected perfectly with the exuberance of Uriarte, author of memorable matches.

Fidel Uriarte was a born creator, the man who fed tirelessly with balls of all styles because he had mettle and knew how to be in the position where the ball was going to pass. Uriarte started playing as an interior but it was the Englishman Ronnie Allen who moved him to the midfield. A link midfielder that fulfilled wonderfully on the field, perhaps better than with the ten on his back, his favorite number because it was precisely the one that Panizo wore: his idol.

Having spent most of his 15-year professional career with Athletic Bilbao, he was crowned La Liga's Pichichi in 1968. In the end, he managed to win 2 Copa del Generalísimo trophies. He was capped by the Spanish national football team on 9 occasions, between 1968 and 1972. His debut as a player for the Spanish national team was on February 28, 1968, in the Spain 3-1 Sweden match. With the national team he scored a goal in a victory against Italy (1-2), played on February 20, 1971. In total, 394 games as a red-and-white, 120 goals.