Manuel Polinario
Manuel Polinario Muñoz, also known as Poli, is a Spanish former football player and manager.
As a forward, he played 229 La Liga games and scored 22 goals for Valencia and Español, winning the league title in 1967 and the national cup in 1971 for the former. He earned one cap for Spain in 1968.
Polinario managed Recreativo de Huelva, Getafe Deportivo and Sabadell in the Segunda División from 1975 to 1983.
Club career
Born in Puente Genil in the Province of Córdoba, Polinario began playing as a youth at his hometown club in a left-wing position. Once he was old enough to play in the Tercera División, he had two years at Calvo Sotelo before joining Valencia in 1963.Polinario's Valencia career began with Mestalla, the reserve team, in the Segunda División. He then broke through into the first team and won La Liga in 1966–67 and the Copa del Generalísimo in 1971.
Polinario then moved to Español in a deal that saw Lico transfer in the other direction. At the Barcelona-based club, Polinario moved into a more central position alongside José Claramunt, distributing the ball to teammates. He returned to the second tier with Recreativo de Huelva in 1974 and retired a year later.
Polinario began his managerial career at Recreativo for the conclusion of the 1974–75 Segunda División season, later managing Getafe Deportivo then Badalona in 1979–80. He returned to second-tier Getafe Deportivo during a turbulent period in which the club president resigned and the administration was taken over as a worker cooperative; when a contract renewal was offered to him in July 1981 with no incentives, he moved to Sabadell in the same league.