Ager Aketxe Barrutia (born 30 December 1993) is a Spanish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

for

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in eu, Eibar Kirol Elkartea) is a professional Spanish football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the team currently plays in the Segunda División, the s ...

. He began his career with

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

, going on to represent both the first and the second teams and make 34 official appearances for the former. He also competed professionally in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

, with

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BMO ...

Club career

Athletic Bilbao

Born in

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

Biscay Biscay (; eu, Bizkaia ; es, Vizcaya ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilbao. B ...

Basque Country Basque Country may refer to: * Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map) * French Basque Country o ...

, Aketxe joined

Lezama Lezama is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. It is home to the training headquarters of the football team Athletic Bilbao, and is accessible by bus - Bizka ...

setup in 2003, aged nine. He made his senior debut with the feeder club

CD Basconia Club Deportivo Basconia is a Spanish football club based in Basauri, Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded on 14 March 1913, it currently plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 4, holding home games at ''Estadio de ...

in 2011, in

Tercera División Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segunda División'', and the semi-professional ''Segunda Di ...

. In May 2012, Aketxe was promoted to the second team in the

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

. He featured regularly for the side, playing all league games in his second season. On 2 September 2014, Aketxe was promoted to the main squad in

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

, being assigned number 23 jersey. He appeared in his first match as a professional on 17 September, coming on as a substitute for Iker Muniain in the 75th minute of a 0–0 home draw against

FC Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was ...

in the group stage of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

; however, he sustained a foot injury in that match which put him out of action for six weeks. Aketxe scored his first goal in the Spanish top flight on 17 May 2015, netting his team's first in a 3–2 away win against Elche CF to help Athletic come from behind 0–2. In the beginning of 2016, he was moved down back to the B side to help them avoid relegation from

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

and gain some minutes. On 27 February he scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a 4–2 home victory over SD Ponferradina, but the team eventually finished in 22nd and last position. On 31 January 2017, after making no appearances during the first half of the campaign due to recovering from a serious knee injury suffered at the end of the previous season, Aketxe was loaned to

Cádiz CF Cádiz Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., known simply as Cádiz, is a Spanish professional football club based in Cádiz, Andalusia. Founded in 1910, the club competes in the La Liga, holding home games at Nuevo Mirandilla, with a seating capacity of 20 ...

in the second tier until June. On 16 February 2018, Athletic cancelled his contract with immediate effect (retaining the right to re-sign him in the following years) to allow him to negotiate a move abroad.

Toronto FC

Aketxe signed with

side

on 23 February 2018, with Athletic holding a buy-back option at the conclusion of his contract. He made his debut four days later, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 0–0 home draw against Colorado Rapids in the second leg of the round of 16 of the

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...

. His first start came on 3 March in the opening match of the

2018 MLS season The 2018 Major League Soccer season was the 23rd season of Major League Soccer, top division of soccer in the United States and Canada. The regular season began on March 3, 2018 and concluded on October 28, 2018. The MLS Cup Playoffs began on Oc ...

, a 2–0 home defeat to Columbus Crew SC.

Cádiz

On 11 July 2018, Aketxe returned to Cádiz after agreeing to a six-month loan with an option to purchase. In November, Toronto and player terminated the remaining term on their contract "by mutual consent". After cutting ties with the Canadian club, Athletic Bilbao did not exercise their buyback option and Aketxe's original loan with Cádiz became an official deal, expiring on 30 June 2019.

Deportivo

On 13 July 2019,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

Aketxe joined fellow second division side Deportivo de La Coruña on a one-year deal, where he was given the number 10 shirt. He scored a goal on his official debut on 18 August, in a 3–2 home victory over

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo is a Spanish football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926 as a result of the merger of two clubs who had maintained a large sporting rivalry for years in the city: ''Real Stadium Club Ovetense'' and ''Real Club De ...

Almería

On 7 September 2020, after being relegated, Aketxe agreed to a two-year contract with UD Almería in the same league. He again scored in his very first appearance, helping to a 2–0 away win against

CD Lugo Club Deportivo Lugo is a Spanish football team based in Lugo, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Founded on 8 July 1953, it plays in Segunda División, holding home games at '' Estadio Anxo Carro''. History The new board of directors was o ...

Eibar

On 27 July 2021, Aketxe signed a two-year deal with

, recently relegated to the second tier. On 7 July 2023, he extended his contract until the summer of 2024.

Personal life

Aketxe's older brother,

Isaac Isaac; grc, Ἰσαάκ, Isaák; ar, إسحٰق/إسحاق, Isḥāq; am, ይስሐቅ is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He was the ...

, is also a footballer; he too was groomed at Athletic Bilbao's youth setup. Their father, known as Isaac Aqueche due to spelling conventions of the time, played as a midfielder in the lower divisions of Spanish football including a spell with Athletic's reserves. In May 2016, Aketxe and two others were put on trial for having caused minor injuries to an off-duty ''ertzaina'' the previous August during a local festival in his place of residence, the

Getxo Getxo () is a town located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in Spain. It is part of Greater Bilbao, and has 77,946 inhabitants (2019). Getxo is mostly an affluent residential area, as well as being the ...

neighbourhood of Romo.

Career statistics

Honours

Athletic Bilbao *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aketxe, Ager 1993 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Getxo Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players CD Basconia footballers Athletic Bilbao B footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers Cádiz CF players Deportivo de La Coruña players UD Almería players SD Eibar footballers Major League Soccer players Toronto FC players Spain men's youth international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Canada