♣ Marca (newspaper)

Marca (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmaɾka]), stylised as MARCA, is Spain's national daily sport newspaper owned by Unidad Editorial. The newspaper focuses primarily on football, in particular the day-to-day activities of Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, and Atlético Madrid. It has a daily readership of over 2.5 million, the highest in Spain for a daily newspaper, and more than half of Spain's total sports readership, as of 2007.

Since February 2001, there has also been an association 24-hour/day sports radio station, Radio Marca. In 2010, the TV channel MARCA TV was launched, before being closed in 2013.

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♣ History and profile

Marca was founded on 21 December 1938, at the height of the Spanish Civil War, in nationalist-held San Sebastián. Its founding editor was Manuel Fernández Cuesta, uncle of businessman Nemesio Fernández-Cuesta. On 3 September 1987 Luis Infante became the editor of the paper.

Punto Editorial SA was the owner of Marca. In 1984 Espacio Editorial, which would be later called Recoletos, acquired the paper. The company merged with Unedisa in 2007 to found Unidad Editorial which is the owner of Marca.

The publisher of the paper is also Unidad Editorial and the sister newspapers are El Mundo and Expansión. Marca is published in tabloid format.

On 25 November 1942, it ceased being published as a weekly publication and has been published as a daily ever since. The daily was awarded the World's Best Designed Newspaper for 2004 by the Society for News Design (SND).

On 21 December 2007, Marca hosted a gala event, featuring the leading Spanish sportsmen of the 20th century, to celebrate the newspaper's 70th anniversary.

The paper was involved in a dispute with Sir Alex Ferguson from the summer of 2008 when he accused Marca of being Real Madrid's "vehicle to unsettle players".

In October 2012, Marca announced launching the Spanish edition of the video games media outlet IGN, effectively replacing their own MARCA Player gaming news website. Marca also planned to launch another Spanish edition of IGN for Spanish-speakers in Latin America.

In 2001 Marca sold 403,000 copies. Its circulation was 382,000 copies in 2003, making it the second best selling newspaper in the country.

On 6 November 2019, Marca signed a collaboration deal with Planeta Wrestling, the number one wrestling website in Spain.

♣ Awards

1. Pichichi - To the top goalscorer in La Liga as well as to the top goalscorer in Segunda División.
2. Zarra - To the top goalscorer among Spanish nationals in La Liga as well as to the top goalscorer among Spanish nationals in Segunda División.
3. Zamora - To the best goalkeeper in La Liga as well as to the best goalkeeper in Segunda División.
4. Miguel Muñoz - To the best head coach in La Liga as well as to the best head coach in Segunda División.
5. Di Stefano - To the best player in La Liga Deportiva.

Pichichi Trophy

In Spanish football, the Trofeo Pichichi is awarded by the sports newspaper Marca to the top goalscorer of each La Liga season. Named after the Athletic Bilbao striker Rafael "Pichichi" Moreno, the trophy has been awarded annually since the 1952–53 season. All top scorers who preceded the award's creation were retroactively named Pichichi winners by Marca. Since the 2014–15 season, the top scorer of the Liga Iberdrola is also awarded the Pichichi Trophy.

The Pichichi is not officially recognised by the league's governing body, the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional. As the award is based on Marca's subjective criteria, its data may differ from the official match delegate reports. For the top scorers in the Spanish football league according to LaLiga data, see List of La Liga top scorers. The player with the record number of wins is Lionel Messi with eight, all with Barcelona.

Zarra Trophy

The Zarra Trophy is a trophy awarded annually by the Spanish sports daily Marca to the Spanish domestic player with the highest goal total in La Liga. It is named after the former Athletic Bilbao striker Telmo Zarra.

It was awarded for the first time in 2006 to David Villa of Valencia.

Ricardo Zamora Trophy

The Zamora Trophy (Spanish: Trofeo Ricardo Zamora) is a football award, established by Spanish newspaper MARCA in 1958. The award goes to the goalkeeper who has the lowest "goals-to-games" ratio.

In the inaugural year of the award, the winning goalkeeper had to play at least 15 league matches in the current season. In 1964, the limit for matches a goalkeeper had to play was raised to 22. In 1983, it was raised to 28 matches, including the rule that the goalkeeper had to play at least 60 minutes in match for it to count.

In the last couple of years the list of goalkeepers who would have won the trophy prior to 1958 has been published. For these seasons, a limit of matches that the goalkeeper had to play has been applied. For the leagues with only 10 teams the limit of matches was 14, for those of 12 teams it was 17 and for those of 14 the limit was 20 matches. For those leagues of 16 teams it is 22 – as originally established for the trophy from 1964 to 1983.

Rules

1. For a goalkeeper to be eligible for the trophy he should play at least 28 games, considered calculable, during the league season. For a match to be considered calculable the goalkeeper should play, at least, 60 minutes of said match.
2. The winner shall be the goalkeeper who has the lowest coefficient, worked out to the second decimal place (hundredths). This is calculated by dividing all goals conceded in the league (including those matches which aren't calculable i.e. those in which the goalkeeper has played less than 60 minutes) by the total number of calculable matches.
3. The trophy can be won by more than one goalkeeper if they have the same coefficient. In which case each goalkeeper shall be awarded a trophy.
4. Each week MARCA shall publish a provisional league table. Until one or more goalkeepers reach the 28 calculable matches the league table shall reward those goalkeepers who have played the most calculable matches, and within those, the one who has the lowest coefficient.

Miguel Muñoz Trophy

The Miguel Muñoz Trophy (Spanish: Trofeo Miguel Muñoz) is a football award for team managers in Spanish football, established by Spanish newspaper Marca in 2006, in memory of the legendary Real Madrid manager Miguel Muñoz.

The award is based on MARCA's subjective scoring system: in which a manager is scored out of three, each match, for his team's performances. The manager with the highest points total, in each of La Liga and the Segunda División, is declared their respective league's winner at the end of the season.

Trofeo Alfredo Di Stéfano

The Alfredo Di Stéfano Trophy (Spanish: Trofeo Alfredo Di Stéfano) is an annual association football award presented by Spanish sports newspaper Marca to the best footballer of La Liga. The award is named after former Real Madrid player Alfredo Di Stéfano. The first edition was awarded in the 2007–08 season Lionel Messi holds the record for the number of wins, with seven.

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