Manuel Jesús Vázquez Florido (born 25 January 1991), known as Chuli, 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 Lleida Esportiu as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. He spent most of his career in 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 ...

, totalling 163 games and 39 goals for seven clubs, mainly Recreativo and

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city gr ...

. He also played 11

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 ...

matches for Betis.

Club career

Recreativo

Born in Huelva,

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

, Chuli spent his first year as a senior with

RCD Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

B team B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It r ...

, appearing sparingly and suffering relegation from

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 ...

. On 22 January 2011 he scored his first goal as a senior, in a 4–0 home win over

CF Amposta Club de Futbol Amposta is a Spanish football team based in Amposta, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1915, it plays in Primera Catalana, holding home games at '' Estadi Municipal de Amposta'', which has a capacity of 3,000 sp ...

in the

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 ...

. He signed for Recreativo de Huelva that summer, initially being assigned to the reserves also in the fourth division; he first played officially with the main squad on 16 May 2012, against

Córdoba CF Córdoba Club de Fútbol (), (from the 2020–21 season onwards competing under the umbrella of Unión Futbolística Cordobesa, S.A.D.) is a Spanish football club based in Córdoba, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1951 as ...

. Chuli was promoted to the first team in

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

after scoring 22 goals with the B's the previous season, featuring in the first game of the campaign against Xerez CD. On 8 September, he netted twice and won a

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

in the 3–2 home victory over Real Murcia. Chuli continued with his form on 6 October 2012, scoring 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 defeat of AD Alcorcón; one of the goals was Recreativo's 1,500th in the

. He finished the season with 15 goals (in the league and overall), helping the oldest club in Spain easily avoid relegation.

Betis

On 8 May 2013, Chuli joined neighbouring

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

on a four-year contract, for a fee of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

600,000. He made his

debut on 25 August by playing roughly 30 minutes in a 1–2 home loss against

RC Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), ...

, and scored his first goal for his new club on 7 November, again coming as a second-half substitute in a 1–0 victory at

Vitória S.C. Vitória Sport Clube, commonly known as Vitória de Guimarães, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Guimarães that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top-flight of football in Portugal. Vitória de Guimarães have finished thir ...

in the group stage of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

. On 1 September 2014, Chuli was supposed to move on loan to

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

-long deal, but nothing came of it. On 7 January 2015, he was loaned to

CD Leganés Club Deportivo Leganés, S.A.D. is a football club based in Leganés, Community of Madrid, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. It was founded on 23 June 1928. It holds home games at ...

until June.

Almería

On 9 July 2015, Chuli signed a five-year deal with UD Almería, recently relegated from the top flight. The following 31 January, he scored a brace in a 2–1 home defeat of Zaragoza.

Getafe

Chuli joined

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol (), or simply Getafe, is a professional football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. The team competes in La Liga, the highest tier of the Spanish football system. The club's home stadium (owned and op ...

on loan on 31 January 2017, with Karim Yoda moving in the opposite direction. After contributing five goals (including a brace in a 4–0 home win over his former club Almería) as his side achieved top-tier promotion, he agreed to a permanent contract. On 12 December 2017, after making no league appearances during the campaign, Chuli was loaned to second-division

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 ...

until the following 30 June. The following 14 August, he moved to fellow league team Extremadura UD also in a temporary deal.

Later career

On 28 August 2019, Chuli returned to his hometown team of Recreativo de Huelva in the third tier. Despite arriving at a team tipped for promotion, they suffered a double relegation to the fifth division due to league restructuring in May 2021. Chuli signed for

Hércules CF Hércules de Alicante Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a Spanish football team in Alicante, in the autonomous community of Valencian Community. Founded on 25 October 1922, it currently plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 3 and plays its hom ...

of the new Segunda División RFEF in September 2021.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Chuli 1991 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Huelva Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Segunda Federación players RCD Espanyol B footballers Atlético Onubense players Recreativo de Huelva players Real Betis players CD Leganés players UD Almería players Getafe CF footballers CD Lugo players Extremadura UD footballers Hércules CF players Lleida Esportiu footballers Spain men's youth international footballers