MADRID, Spain (AP) — Luis Aragones, the former Spain coach who shaped the team’s rise from perennial underachiever to global powerhouse with a long-awaited title at the 2008 European Championship, has died. He was 75.

The Spanish football federation announced the death early yesterday, saying Aragones died at a Madrid hospital. He had been battling leukemia.

Federation president Angel Maria Villar said Aragones would be remembered as “very special” — both for his contributions to Spanish football and as a person.

“With him we have lived the beginning of an extraordinary phase in football as well as for Spanish society,” Villar said. “This has been a painful dawn for our football.”

Aragones had a successful playing career as a sharpshooting international forward who earned 11 caps for Spain, and then spent the rest of his life as a much-travelled coach.

However, he will mostly be remembered for what happened on June 29, 2008, when his team beat Germany 1-0 in Vienna to claim its first major title in 44 years.

“Luis Aragones changed the history of Spanish football,” Spain captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas said. “And for that we will always be thankful.”

The Euro 2008 triumph was the culmination of Aragones’ four-year reign as Spain coach, having taken over a team that for the last 20 years had earned a reputation for always coming up short in major tournaments.

But Aragones instilled a new sense of belief in his players, even after losing to France in the second round of the 2006 World Cup. He also made the team adopt the quick-passing “tiki-taka” style of football made famous by Barcelona, and which his players came close to perfecting at Euro 2008.

Led by Barcelona midfielders Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta — and the goalscoring of David Villa — Spain went undefeated through the tournament, but needed a penalty shootout against Italy to advance from the quarter-finals.

While Aragones stepped down after the tournament, the team went on to win its first World Cup two years later and then added an unprecedented third straight major title at Euro 2012 under his successor Vicente del Bosque.

“Without a doubt, our current run of success is a result of his legacy,” Del Bosque said yesterday, after paying his respects to Aragones’ family. “He had a long history of coaching experience and he had a special appreciation for the game.”

His playing career began 43 years earlier, when Aragones joined Atletico Madrid. He scored 123 times in 265 games for the team — the second highest in its history — and helped the club win three Spanish league titles and two Copa del Reys. It also reached the 1974 European Cup final, where it lost to Bayern Munich in a replay.

Aragones, nicknamed “The Sage of Hortaleza” in reference to the Madrid suburb of his birth, was then appointed as Atletico coach and led the team to the 1975 World Club Championship, the 1976 Copa del Rey and the 1977 league title.

He coached Atletico on a total of five occasions and he had two spells each at Mallorca and Real Betis. He was also in charge of Barcelona, Espanyol, Sevilla, Valencia and Oviedo in a career total of 757 games, a Spanish league record.

Aragones is survived by his wife Pepa, five children and 11 grandchildren.