Ander Capa Rodríguez (born 8 February 1992) 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 for

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 ...

as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

or a winger. He played mainly with

Eibar Eibar ( eu, Eibar, es, Éibar) is a city and municipality within the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Basque Country of Spain. It is the head town of Debabarrena, one of the '' eskualde / comarca'' of Gipuzkoa. Eibar has 27,138 inhabitants ( Eustat ...

during his career, representing the club in three levels of Spanish football including the top division. Over seven seasons, he played 214 competitive matches and scored 15 goals. He joined Athletic Bilbao in 2018, winning the

2020–21 Supercopa de España The 2020–21 Supercopa de España was the 37th edition of the Supercopa de España, an annual football competition for clubs in the Spanish football league system that were successful in its major competitions in the preceding season. It was the ...

Club career

Eibar

Capa was born in

Portugalete Portugalete is a town lying to the west of Bilbao in the province of Biscay in the Autonomous Community of Basque Country, northern Spain. The town has 45,766 inhabitants (2019 census) and is part of Bilbao's metropolitan area. It is located a ...

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. He played youth football with local

Danok Bat CF Danok Bat Club de Fica is a Spanish football team based in Bilbao, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1972, the club is mainly known for their successful youth setup, which helps players to develop and join other senior clu ...

before signing 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 ...

, making his senior debut in the 2011–12 season with the reserves 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 July 2012, Capa was promoted to the first team after appearing once with the main squad in 2011–12. In the following campaign, he played 24 matches and scored five goals (adding six games and two goals in the playoffs) as the ''Armeros'' returned to the

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 ...

after a four-year absence. Capa played his first professional match on 18 August 2013, starting in a 2–1 away win against

Real Jaén Real Jaén Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Jaén, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1929 it plays in Tercera División RFEF, holding home matches at ''Nuevo Estadio de La Victoria'', with a capacit ...

. He scored his first goal on 28 September, but in a 3–2 loss at

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting (although in an international context this can lead to confusion with Sporting Clube de Portugal) is a Spanish football club from Gijón, P ...

. He appeared in a further 30 games while netting once during the season, being promoted to

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 ...

for the first time ever. Capa made his debut in the top flight on 24 August 2014, starting in a 1–0 home victory over

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

. He scored his first goal in the competition on 8 December, his side's last in a 5–2 home rout of

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as ''Almería Club de Fútbol'' until 2001, when it was renamed ''Unión D ...

. During the 2015 pre-season, Capa was converted from a winger into a

by new manager

José Luis Mendilibar José Luis Mendilibar Etxebarria (born 14 March 1961) is a Spanish former Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder, currently Manager (association football), manager of Sevilla FC. He played no higher than Segunda División, ...

. On 19 November of that year, with the club still in the top tier and him as an undisputed starter, he renewed his contract until 2018.

Athletic Bilbao

On 1 September 2017, Capa agreed to join former youth club

for four years, with the deal being made effective in July 2018. He scored his first goal for them on 10 November 2019, netting the 2–1 winner in the final minutes of the home fixture against

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. (, ca-valencia, Llevant Unió Esportiva ) is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 9 September 1909, Levante ...

through a volley from outside the box; he also provided the

assist Assist or ASSIST may refer to: Sports Several sports have a statistic known as an "assist", generally relating to action by a player leading to a score by another player on their team: *Assist (basketball), a pass by a player that facilitates a ba ...

for the equaliser by

Iker Muniain Iker Muniain Goñi (, ; born 19 December 1992) is a Spanish footballer who plays for Athletic Bilbao, where he is captain, mainly as a left winger. Due to his style of play and stature, he was dubbed "the Spanish Messi" by the media. He has spe ...

in the same game. Having previously been a regular starter, Capa made only one competitive appearance in the 2021–22 campaign under head coach

Marcelino García Toral Marcelino García Toral (; born 14 August 1965), known simply as Marcelino in his playing days, is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. During a ten-year senior career, he amassed La Liga totals o ...

, and that consisted of just a few minutes as a late substitute. Subsequently, he was highly critical of the manager, and with no agreement reached on a new contract – even after negotiations resumed when Jon Uriarte was elected as the new president and

Ernesto Valverde Ernesto Valverde Tejedor (born 9 February 1964) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a forward. He is the current manager of La Liga club Athletic Bilbao. Over ten seasons, he amassed La Liga totals of 264 games and 68 ...

was brought as the new coach – he appeared set to leave the club. However, eventually a new deal was reached in July 2022, with the player staying at San Mamés for at least one more season and potentially a second if targets were met.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Eibar *

: 2013–14 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 ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

runner-up: 2019–20,

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Capa, Ander 1992 births Living people People from Portugalete Sportspeople from Biscay Spanish footballers Footballers from the Basque Country (autonomous community) Association football defenders Association football wingers Association football utility players La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Danok Bat CF players SD Eibar footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers Basque Country international footballers