Marcos Llorente Has Real Madrid Infused Into His Veins

It’s not unusual for people to become Madridista because of their parents. But there are some families which take an extra step to their fandom and actually play for their club — just like the family of Marcos Llorente.

Marcos is a person who has Madridismo in his veins. In total, his relatives played more than 1100 matches for Real Madrid and took part in the club’s history. I decided to make an illustrated summary of these players’ careers, which you can see below.

Francisco ‘Paco’ Gento López

Sofi Serg

There won’t be enough words to describe the excellence of Paco Gento — Marcos Llorente’s great uncle — who is known as one of the best left-wingers of all time and also one of the greatest Madridistas in the history of Real Madrid.

He was a part of the club’s legendary squad filled with Di Stéfano, Kopa, Puskas and other outstanding players. That era of pure greatness happened more than fifty years ago but, thanks to the old video records, even now we can see that Paco Gento wore the number eleven shirt and also that his strong points were high speed, incredible dribbling skills, and accurate crosses.

Sofi Serg

Real Madrid’s official website describes Paco Gento’s career as “Trophies, trophies and more trophies,” and that’s fair enough. During his 18 seasons in the club, he won 12 La Liga titles and six European Cups (five of them are consecutive), which is still an unbroken record. What a legend Paco Gento is! The story of his career can’t be told in just a few paragraphs of an article. It has to be a book.

After the retirement as a professional player, Gento worked as a coach in Real Madrid Castilla, and then also in some other teams. In October 2016 he was named Honorary President of Real Madrid.

Now let’s have a look at the stories of his two younger brothers, Julio Gento and Antonio Gento, who also started their football journeys at Real Madrid.

Julio Gento López

Sofi Serg

There’s not much information about Julio Gento, who was six years younger than his brother Paco. It is known that he was a midfielder and that he started to play football at Real Madrid’s academy, but he didn’t reach the first team squad. It is also believed that one of his strong points was his speed, and that he resembled his legendary brother in some aspects of play.

Julio Gento played for some Spanish teams including Deportivo and Málaga. After he retired as a player, he worked in the coaching staff at Palencia CF.

He died at 77 years old in his hometown Guarnizo, in 2016.

Antonio Gento López

Sofi Serg

Antonio is the younger brother of Paco and Julio, and was born in 1940. He started to play as a striker in Real Madrid’s academy and then accomplished his debut in the first team, where he spent one season and won La Liga and Copa Del Rey.

After Real Madrid, there were four more Spanish teams in Antonio Gento’s career, including Levante and Real Racing. There’s no information about his coaching experience or any other post-football job.

Now it’s time for me to mention that those three Gento brothers had a sister: María Antonia Gento. Her four sons are also connected with Real Madrid, so let’s have a look at some stories about them.

José Luis ‘Joe’ Llorente Gento

Sofi Serg

Joe Llorente, who is the oldest of the four brothers, was born in 1959 and had a successful career as a basketball player. He started his journey at Real Madrid basketball academy and upon reaching the age of twenty he was promoted to the first team, where he played four seasons and has conquered some important trophies including the European Cup, Copa del Rey, and two league titles.

After that, Joe Llorente played a few seasons at Cajamadrid, and then also at CAI Zaragoza — but soon he returned at Real Madrid to spend five more seasons there and to continue creating history with this club. He also played 112 games for the Spanish national team and participated in three Olympic Games.

Sofi Serg

After retiring from his playing career, Joe Llorente was appointed as president of the Spanish Basketball Players’ Association, where he worked until 2014; he also used to contribute as a commentator for Real Madrid TV and Radio Marca. Now he works as lector, journalist, and sports expert for some Spanish news media and has a blog in which he shares his opinion on the news about Real Madrid’s both basketball and football teams.

In November 2016 he released a book called “Espíritu de remontada” in which he tells about the using of ’comeback spirit’ not only in basketball but also in a daily life.

His two sons Sergio Llorente and Juan Llorente are professional basketball players too; though they’ve never played at Real Madrid.

Antonio ‘Toñín’ Llorente Gento

Sofi Serg

Toñín Llorente is four years younger than his brother Joe, and he started his career at Real Madrid’s basketball academy as well. He didn’t get a chance to debut in the first team back then and decided to join another club called Inmobanco Madrid. Well, that was just a start of his transfer journey.

Toñín rarely stayed at one place for more than one season and played in 13 different basketball teams during his professional career. At the age of thirty-eight, he finally returned to Real Madrid, where he spent a half of the season and then retired as a player.

Soon after that, he decided to try his hand at coaching in basketball and football. In the 2011-2012 season, he worked as a mental coach in AS Roma.

Francisco ‘Paco’ Llorente Gento

Sofi Serg

Unlike his two older brothers, Paco Llorente chose football over basketball. He started his career at Atletico Madrid’s academy and then moved to Real Madrid. One of his strong points was universality on the pitch: he could play as a right winger or as a forward; and a couple of times he even played as a right back.

During the seven-year career at the club, Paco was mostly a substitute who tried to gain some playing time and a place in the starting line-up where there were plenty of attacking superstars like Míchel, Hugo Sánchez and Emilio Butragueño. However, he was a hard worker and helped the team conquer three La Liga titles, two Copa Del Rey trophies, and four Spanish Super Cups.

Paco Llorente married the oldest daughter of an ex Real Madrid player, Ramón Grosso. In 1995 their son Marcos Llorente was born.

Julio Llorente Gento

Sofi Serg

Julio is the youngest brother of Joe, Toñín and Paco Llorente. He also chose football and started his career playing as right-back in Real Madrid Castilla.

At the age of 21, Julio joined Mallorca on loan for one season. After that, he spent two successful seasons at Real Madrid and conquered two La Liga titles, one Copa Del Rey trophy, and two Spanish Super Cups. His brother Paco Llorente also played in the club during that time.

In 1990, Julio moved to Deportivo Tenerife, where he spent nine years and scored 17 goals in 234 matches. He retired as a player in 2000, after one season at Unión Salamanca.

Ramón Moreno Grosso

Sofi Serg

Marcos Llorente’s grandfather, Ramón Grosso, was an outstanding forward who joined Real Madrid’s academy at the age of 15. Five years later, he moved to Atletico Madrid on a four-month loan where he helped them to avoid relegation.

After the loan, Ramón Grosso returned to Real Madrid and represented the club for over 12 seasons, scoring 75 goals in 366 official games and winning many trophies — including the European Cup and seven La Liga titles. He also was the player who took over the number nine shirt from Alfredo Di Stéfano in 1964.

Sofi Serg

After the end of his playing career, Ramón Grosso worked as a coach in Real Madrid Castilla and then also as Di Stefano’s assistant in the first team’s coaching staff. He died on February 2002, at the age of 58.

In 2014, his son, Ramón JR, founded the ‘Ramón Grosso Foundation’. Its main objective is to help children with intellectual and physical disabilities through sports.

---

It can be interesting to discover some rare information about the players from the team’s current squad. Many fans know Marcos Llorente as a canterano and a talented player, but he’s also a part of a family that is very connected with Real Madrid’s historical background. Marcos says his relatives really helped him with good advice at the start of his football career in the club.

Well, I think we can call him ‘a successor of a dynasty of Madridistas’.

Sofi Serg

Here’s also a genealogical tree with the names of all Madridistas in the Gento-Llorente-Grosso family:

Sofi Serg

“Real Madrid is the club of my life and also of my whole family” — Marcos Llorente.