[2] He played in four matches for the Spain national football team in 1923 and 1924, scoring four goals, including a hat-trick against Portugal on 16 December of 1923.
[3] Born in Irun, he began to play football in the youth ranks of his hometown club Sporting de Irún.
After inflicting an injury to an opposing player, he was sanctioned by the Catalan Football Federation, earning three months of inactivity.
[5] After four seasons at Oviedo, Zabala returned to Espanyol in 1923, and in his second spell there, he became a brilliant forward, forming an attacking partnership with the likes of Rafael Oramas, Alfredo Arróniz, and José Padrón, and earning his first international call-ups for the Spanish and the Catalan national teams.
When he returned to Espanyol in 1923, he become eligible to play for the Catalan national team, however, due to the little statistical rigor that the newspapers had at that time, the exact amount of caps he earned is unknown.