Born in Almansa on 19 April 1890, son of lawyer José Bernabéu Ibáñez, Bernabeu arrived in Bologna in 1909 at the Real Colegio de España after having already taken most of his exams at the Universidad Central de Madrid. The Ministry of Public Education accepted his application for enrolment in the fourth year of the Faculty of Law. He graduated on 7 July 1911 with a thesis entitled “Comparison between the Spanish and Italian systems of real estate advertising”. He had previously discussed three oral dissertations with Prof. Alessandro Stoppato (Criminal Law and Procedure), Prof. Domenico Mantovani Orsetti (Administrative Law) and Prof. Luigi Rossi (Constitutional Law).
Bernabeu played in his first matches at Prati di Caprara and on 3 October 1909 he was one of the founders of Bologna Football Club, where he played his first official championships as a striker. In 1912 he returned to Spain, where he became president of the Spanish Football Federation and manager of Real Madrid — the club where his famous brother Santiago played. He was later a member of the CEDA political coalition and the Congress of Deputies for the province of Albacete from 1936 to 1939. He died in Madrid on 7 July 1967. Throughout his life, he maintained an affectionate bond with Bologna and his teammates from the pioneering years of football.
CAPTIONS
1 - Bologna FC line-up in the 1911-12 season.
2 - Application for enrolment in the fourth year of the Faculty of Law, 1909.
3 - List of titles, written thesis, and oral dissertations.
4 - Bernabeu among the resident students at the Collegio di Spagna.