Ramón Colón

Ramón Colón Acevedo (22 March 1916 – 1999) was a Spanish footballer who played as a defender for Atlético Madrid.

He later became a manager, taking charge over Atlético Madrid, Real Murcia CF, and Rayo Vallecano.

Playing career
Born in Madrid, Colón began playing football at his hometown club in Imperio CF in 1939, which at the time served as a subsidiary of Atlético Madrid, then known as Atlético Aviación, who signed him in 1940. He remained with the club for three seasons, playing a total of eight La Liga matches, and winning one league title in 1940–41 and the 1941–47 FEF President Cup, in which he played in only one match, a 2–0 loss to Valencia CF.

Colón then played for UD Salamanca and Chamberí FC before retiring in the late 1940s.

Managerial career
After his career as a player ended, Colón remained linked to Atlético, now as a coach of the amateur and youth teams for several years, with which he was proclaimed champion of Spain. In January 1953, he was promoted to the first team to replace Helenio Herrera when he was dismissed. He was dismissed at the start of the 1953–54 campaign after only five days, and in the following summer, he joined Real Murcia.

Knowing like few others about the Madrid football academy, Colón brought with him two kids with huge potential, the 18-year-old Joaquín Peiró and the 20-year-old Enrique Collar. The latter was claimed in the middle of the season by his parent club, but Colón pulled another one from Real Madrid, Ramón Marsal, thus forming a team with which he achieved promotion to the First Division in the 1954–55 season, with the journalist Juan Antonio Calvo, the head of the sports section of the La Verdad newspaper stating that "of the eleven times that Murcia has risen to the First Division, it has never done so with such little suffering and as much anticipation as the one that has just occurred".

Colón later coached CD Málaga (1955–56), Rayo Vallecano (1956–58 and 1959–61), CD Badajoz (1958–59), and UD Salamanca (1963–64). He was also a youth coach of both Federación Castellana de Fútbol and the National team.

Death
Ramón Colón died in 1999, at the age of either 82 or 83.

Player

 * Atlético Madrid
 * FEF President Cup (1): 1941–47
 * La Liga (1): 1940–41

Coach

 * Real Murcia
 * Segunda División (1): 1954–55