Julio Iglesias, the goalkeeper Real Madrid signed at 15

Julio Iglesias turns 83 next Wednesday, and by all accounts his links to Real Madrid go well beyond the odd showbiz anecdote.

Three years ago, more than 400 celebrities and football figures marked the singer's birthday, Joan Laporta among them.

The gesture fits a pattern. He was also the first artist to hold a concert at the Camp Nou, in 1983, and repeated the feat in 1988.

His Real Madrid roots run deeper still. Born Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva, he moved from his school side at Sagrado Corazones into Real Madrid's youth set-up, where he spent four years, from 1959 to 1963, with the Juvenil B side.

The story of his signing has picked up embellishments over the decades, but the accepted version credits the legendary goalkeeper Ricardo Zamora with approving him — largely on account of his height, 1.85 metres, no small figure for a goalkeeper at the time. Getting into the side proved harder than getting signed. His coach at the club was Enrique Martín Aranda, a pioneer of Real Madrid's youth categories, with Miguel Malbo Notario — one of the founders of what is now known as La Fábrica — serving as delegate and Ricardo Burillo Requejo as supervisor.

Two of his old teammates, José Luis Povedano and Juan Ramón Espejo, described him on La Sexta in 2023.

Line-ups from that era place him alongside Grosso and Velázquez, players from his own generation at the club.