The elite players of Menorca have to head to the mainland to reach the upper echelons of Spanish football, and there’s not many bigger clubs to go to than Barcelona.
One of the most legendary Menorcan players is Francisco Domingo Rosello (born 1945), who made his debut for UD Mahon at the age of 17 and captured the attention of FC Barcelona in 1967.
Although he never played an official league match for Barca, he did play in some unofficial matches, scoring 17 goals in 18 games. He spent time on loan at Athletic Catalunya and CD Comtal, and then to Espanyol, who he helped earn promotion to the First Division.
A further loan spell to Rayo Vallecano in the Second Division followed, where he scored 12 goals in 35 appearances, before he finally got his chance to grace the First Division as a player, playing two seasons with Real Betis.
His professional career ended with CE Sabadell, where he decided to settle after his playing days after meeting his wife there. That meant no romantic farewell at a club on the island.
Born in Fornells, those achievements place ‘Mingo’ in an elite group of Menorcans to have played in the top flight.
The Mahon club “merger was a mistake”
During his time at UD Mahon, the club won two Tercera Division titles including the unbeaten season of 1966-67, narrowly missing out on a notable promotion to Segunda Division in the play-offs; one of the golden eras for club football in Menorca.
Had UD Mahon made the jump up the leagues that year, how things may have turned out differently for Menorcan football. As it was, seven years later, UD Mahon was technically no more, controversially forced to merge with CD Menorca to create Sporting Mahones.
In an interview with Menorca.info, Rosello said: “I think the merger was a mistake, and it’s been proven that it was. History is very difficult to overthrow, and that thing about Unión, a century-old club, (CD) Menorca, which is also century-old.
“It’s as if they wanted to unite Betis and Sevilla, although that rivalry is on a much larger scale, but it’s unthinkable.
“It wasn’t viable to unify everything into a single entity. I always thought, when the merger happened, that it wouldn’t work, and time has shown that.”
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Rosello’s football journey
Rosello played in unofficial matches for Barcelona between 1967 to 1971, before leaving the club permanently to join Betis for the 1971/72 season.
While at Barcelona, his loan move to city rivals Espanyol was quite controversial, and he had to fight hard for game time. Some players and fans felt his presence, a Barcelona player, would stand in the way of an Espanyol player’s progress, and he would simply return to Barcelona after his loan spell. He did play 15 matches under Chilean coach Fernando Riera.
During his time at Betis, Rosello was friends with tragic Pedro Berruezo, who was the first Spanish professional player to die on the pitch. He collapsed playing for Sevilla away at Pontevedra in 1973, passing away at the age of 27. A statue in Berruezo’s honour stands at Sevilla’s Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium today.
Among Rosello’s team-mates at Betis was Luis del Sol, a midfielder who played for Spain at two World Cups, and would go on to play for Real Madrid, Juventus and Roma before returning to Betis to end his career.
In total, Rosello scored 32 goals in 133 appearances in the top two divisions of Spanish football, including four in his 26 appearances in the top flight with Betis.
Rosello was recently one of the headline guests for the Menorcan Football Gala, which presented awards to the best players of the year and highlighted the achievements of Sporting Mahon and others.
Although his football journey went well beyond UD Mahon, he said his time with them meant everything.
He added: “I lived in Fornells, and if I had stayed there, I’d be a fisherman or a shoemaker now.
“Playing for Unión gave me the opportunity to sign for Barça. Being at Barça gave me the opportunity to have a career, my life, stability, well-being, a good family, children, grandchildren, a home… so playing for Unión meant the world to me. Thanks to playing for Unión, I’ve been able to achieve everything I’ve achieved.”
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