# 1998–99 Atlético Madrid season

The 1998–1999 campaign was the 93rd season in Atlético Madrid's history and their 64th season in La Liga, the top division of Spanish football.

## Season summary

Arrigo Sacchi was sacked in February with Atlético in the UEFA Cup quarter-finals but also mired in the bottom half of the table. B-team manager Carlos Sánchez Aguiar took charge for the next month, guiding Atlético to the UEFA Cup semi-finals, before handing the reins to Radomir Antić. Antić had guided the club to the title three years previously, but ultimately the high point of his second spell in charge would be reaching the Copa del Rey final, only to be thrashed 3-0 by Valencia. The league form under Antić continued to be mediocre and Atlético were also knocked out of the UEFA Cup in the semi-finals for the second season running, by eventual champions Parma. Although Atlético qualified for the UEFA Cup due to their domestic cup run, this season would prove to be the beginning of the end for Atlético's status as one of Spain's top clubs for most of the next decade; it would be five more years until Atlético recorded their next top-half finish, and another three before their return to European competition.

## First-team squad

    Squad at end of season
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | ESP | José Molina |
| 2 | DF | ARG | José Chamot |
| 3 | DF | ESP | Toni |
| 4 | DF | YUG | Zoran Njegus |
| 5 | DF | ESP | Juanma López |
| 6 | DF | ESP | Santi |
| 7 | MF | YUG | Vladimir Jugović |
| 8 | MF | ITA | Giorgio Venturin |
| 9 | MF | ARG | Santiago Solari |
| 10 | MF | BRA | Juninho |
| 11 | MF | ESP | Jordi Lardín |
| 12 | MF | RSA | Quinton Fortune |
| 13 | GK | ESP | Pedro Luis Jaro |
| 14 | FW | ESP | José Mari |
| 15 | DF | ESP | Carlos Aguilera |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 16 | MF | ESP | Juan Carlos Valerón |
| 17 | FW | URU | Juan González |
| 18 | MF | ESP | Roberto |
| 19 | FW | ESP | Kiko |
| 20 | DF | ESP | Delfí Geli |
| 21 | DF | ITA | Stefano Torrisi |
| 22 | MF | ARG | Óscar Mena |
| 23 | DF | ITA | Michele Serena |
| 24 | MF | CZE | Radek Bejbl |
| 25 | FW | URU | Fernando Correa |
| 27 | DF | ESP | Ramón |
| 28 | FW | ESP | Luis Tevenet |
| 29 | MF | ESP | Rubén Baraja |
| 30 | DF | ESP | Gaspar |
| 31 | FW | ESP | Loren |

### Transfers

In :
| Pos. | Name | from | Type |
| DF | José Chamot | SS Lazio | |
| MF | Vladimir Jugović | SS Lazio | |
| DF | Michele Serena | Fiorentina | |
| DF | Stefano Torrisi | Bologna FC | |
| DF | Zoran Njegus | Crvena Zvezda | |
| MF | Juan Carlos Valerón | RCD Mallorca | |
| MF | Oscar Mena | RCD Mallorca | |
| MF | Roberto | RCD Espanyol | loan ended |
| MF | Cristian Díaz | Platense | |
| MF | Santiago Solari | River Plate | |
| FW | Fernando Correa | Racing Santander | loan ended |
| FW | Luis Tevenet | Sevilla FC | |
| MF | Rubén Baraja | Real Valladolid | |
| DF | Gaspar Gálvez Burgos | | |
| MF | Loren del Pino | | |
Out :
| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| FW | Christian Vieri | SS Lazio | |
| MF | José Luis Caminero | Real Valladolid | |
| DF | Andrei Frascarelli | Real Betis | |
| FW | Paulo Futre | | retired |
| MF | Juan Vizcaíno | Real Valladolid | |
| MF | Milinko Pantic | Le Havre AC | |
| MF | Veljko Paunovic | RCD Mallorca | loan |
| DF | Daniel Prodan | Glasgow Rangers | |

#### Winter

In :
| Pos. | Name | from | Type |
| MF | Giorgio Venturin | SS Lazio | |
| FW | Juan Gonzalez | Real Oviedo | loan |
Out :
| Pos. | Name | To | Type |
| MF | Cristian Díaz | Málaga | loan |

## Competitions
### La Liga
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 11 | Real Betis | 38 | 14 | 7 | 17 | 47 | 58 | −11 | 49 | |
| 12 | Valladolid | 38 | 13 | 9 | 16 | 35 | 44 | −9 | 48 | |
| 13 | Atlético Madrid | 38 | 12 | 10 | 16 | 54 | 50 | +4 | 46 | Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round |
| 14 | Oviedo | 38 | 11 | 12 | 15 | 41 | 57 | −16 | 45 | |
| 15 | Racing Santander | 38 | 10 | 12 | 16 | 41 | 53 | −12 | 42 | |
* ↑ Since Valencia, winners of 1998–99 Copa del Rey, was qualified for the 1999–2000 UEFA Champions League, losing cup finalists Atlético Madrid earned a spot in the first round of the 1999–2000 UEFA Cup.

#### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 |
| Ground | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A |
| Result | L | W | D | W | L | W | L | W | D | L | W | W | D | D | D | W | W | L | W | L | L | L | L | D | L | L | L | D | D | L | D | W | L | L | D | L | W | W |
| Position | 18 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 14 | 13 |

#### Matches
### Copa del Rey

Eightfinals
Quarterfinals
Semifinals

#### Final
### UEFA Cup
#### First round

Atlético Madrid won 3–0 on aggregate.

#### Second round

Atlético Madrid won 5–2 on aggregate.

#### Third round

Atlético Madrid won 5–3 on aggregate.

#### Quarter-finals

Atlético Madrid won 4–2 on aggregate.

#### Semi-finals

Parma won 5–2 on aggregate.

## Statistics
### Players statistics

| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | La Liga | La Liga | Copa del Rey | Copa del Rey | UEFA Cup | UEFA Cup |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| 1 | GK | ESP | Molina | 53 | -66 | 38 | -49 | 7 | -7 | 8 | -10 |
| 15 | DF | ESP | Carlos Aguilera | 42 | 2 | 27+1 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 5+2 | 1 |
| 2 | DF | ARG | Chamot | 47 | 1 | 33 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| 6 | DF | ESP | Santi | 44 | 1 | 29+1 | 0 | 5+1 | 0 | 8 | 1 |
| 23 | DF | ITA | Serena | 51 | 4 | 35 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 9+1 | 0 |
| 16 | MF | ESP | Valeron | 40 | 3 | 26+4 | 3 | 4+1 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 18 | MF | ESP | Roberto | 46 | 9 | 19+11 | 4 | 2+4 | 1 | 7+3 | 4 |
| 22 | MF | ARG | Óscar Mena | 40 | 2 | 19+10 | 2 | 2+2 | 0 | 6+1 | 0 |
| 10 | MF | BRA | Juninho | 47 | 13 | 20+12 | 8 | 5+1 | 1 | 9 | 4 |
| 14 | FW | ESP | José Mari | 51 | 16 | 33+4 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 6+1 | 3 |
| 11 | FW | ESP | Jordi Lardín | 33 | 2 | 18+3 | 2 | 4+2 | 0 | 5+1 | 0 |
| 13 | GK | ESP | Jaro | 5 | -3 | 0+2 | -1 | 0 | 0 | 2+1 | -2 |
| 3 | DF | ESP | Toni | 33 | 0 | 16+6 | 0 | 1+2 | 0 | 6+2 | 0 |
| 7 | MF | YUG | Jugovic | 27 | 5 | 15+2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 2 |
| 21 | DF | ITA | Torrisi | 27 | 2 | 15+2 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 4+1 | 1 |
| 25 | FW | URU | Correa | 26 | 10 | 11+9 | 8 | 1+2 | 2 | 0+3 | 0 |
| 24 | MF | CZE | Bejbl | 21 | 0 | 10+4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1+3 | 0 |
| 19 | FW | ESP | Kiko | 15 | 7 | 10+1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 |
| 4 | DF | YUG | Njegus | 22 | 1 | 8+7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3+3 | 0 |
| 8 | MF | ITA | Venturin | 13 | 0 | 7+4 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | FW | URU | Juan González | 9 | 2 | 7+1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 28 | MF | ESP | Baraja | 14 | 1 | 7+1 | 1 | 3+1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 9 | MF | ARG | Solari | 16 | 1 | 5+7 | 1 | 0+3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 20 | DF | ESP | Delfí Geli | 11 | 0 | 4+2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 |
| 27 | DF | ESP | Ramón | 11 | 0 | 3+3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0+3 | 0 |
| 12 | MF | RSA | Fortune | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 | FW | ESP | Loren | 2 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 | MF | ESP | Tevenet | 7 | 0 | 0+5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 |
| 30 | DF | ESP | Gaspar | 2 | 0 | 0+2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | DF | ESP | Juanma López | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | FW | ESP | Rubio | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | DF | ARG | Cristian Díaz | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* Source: https://www.bdfutbol.com/es/t/t1998-997.html

### Top scorers

| Rank | Position | Number | Player | La Liga | Copa del Rey | UEFA Cup | Total |
| 1 | FW | 14 | José Mari | 9 | 4 | 3 | 16 |
| 2 | MF | 10 | Juninho Paulista | 8 | 1 | 4 | 13 |
| 3 | FW | 25 | Fernando Correa | 8 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| 4 | MF | 18 | Roberto Fresnedoso | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 |
| 5 | FW | 19 | Kiko | 4 | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| 6 | MF | 7 | Vladimir Jugović | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| 7 | DF | 23 | Michele Serena | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 8 | MF | 16 | Juan Carlos Valerón | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 9 | FW | 11 | Jordi Lardín | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | DF | 15 | Aguilera | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | FW | 17 | Juan González | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | DF | 21 | Stefano Torrisi | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | MF | 22 | Oscar Mena | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 14 | DF | 2 | José Chamot | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 | DF | 4 | Zoran Njeguš | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 | DF | 6 | Santi Denia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 14 | MF | 9 | Santiago Solari | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 | MF | 28 | Rubén Baraja | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Own goals | Own goals | Own goals | Own goals | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | Totals | Totals | Totals | 54 | 9 | 19 | 82 |