Rafael Oramas

Rafael Oramas Navarro (13 April 1904 – 21 April 1968) was a Spanish footballer who played as a forward for RCD Espanyol and Racing de Madrid.

He was the first in a family saga of football players, including Rafael Oramas Cabrera and Alexis Trujillo.

Club career
Rafael Oramas was born on 13 April 1904 in Las Palmas, and began his footballing career at his hometown club Santa Catalina, featuring alongside the likes of Espino and José Padrón. His other brother, Pancho Oramas, was an excellent right winger who started in that famous primitive Unión Arenal. In 1924 he signed for the Club Marino, one of the main clubs in the Canary Islands, and in April 1925, he joined the ranks of Real Club Victoria and during a tour of the Canarian club on Catalonia, in which they faced clubs such as UE Sants, Sabadell, and Iluro SC, he was noticed by RCD Espanyol, who signed him in the summer of 1925, together with his teammate Padrón.

Although he had played as a midfield distributor in his previous teams, Oramas played as a center forward in Espanyol, being described as a player with a refined technique, serious, tenacious, and tireless. He was very skilled and at the same time very practical due to his regularity and his performance, occupying any position that was assigned to him. He participated in the American tour that Espanyol made to raise funds to cover the costs of the construction of the Sarrià Stadium. He was also a member of the Espanyol team that won the 1929 Copa del Rey. On 10 February 1929, Oramas went down in history as one of the eleven footballers who played in the very first La Liga match in the club's history, in which he scored two goals to help his side to a victory over Real Unión.

Oramas played with Espanyol for four seasons until 1929, when the arrival of Domingo Broto meant Oramas ceasing to have the predominant role of previous campaigns, so he decided to leave at the end of the season, playing for Racing de Madrid (1929–30)  and Recreativo de Huelva (1930–31) before retiring.

International career
Despite being from the Canary Islands, Oramas played two games for the Catalan national team, making his debut on 13 December 1925, in a friendly against Czechoslovakia at Sarrià, helping his side to a 2–1. Four years later, on 12 May, he earned his second cap for Catalonia in a friendly against FC Barcelona, where he either suffered a stroke in his leg that took him away from football or suffered a knee injury that made him lose his abilities and prevented him from performing at the highest level.

Death
After retiring from playing football, Oramas dedicated himself to port freight traffic. He died in Barcelona on 21 April 1968, at the age of 64. A street in Las Palmas was named after him.

Honours

 * Espanyol
 * Catalan championship
 * Champions (1): 1928–29

Copa del Rey:
 * Champions (1): 1929