César Gómez del Rey (born 23 October 1967) is a Spanish retired

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 ...

who played as a

central defender 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 ...

. He was best known for being part of the

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

sides that consolidated 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 ...

into consecutive

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

presences. Over the course of seven seasons, he amassed totals in the former competition of 217 games and five goals, also representing

Valladolid Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...

Football career

Gómez was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. He unsuccessfully graduated from

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

's youth system, and made his professional debuts in 1990 with

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club colo ...

, being relegated from

in his second year. Gómez joined fellow league team

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1912, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez Lóp ...

in summer 1992, being instrumental as they qualified for the

in his debut campaign. Moreover, he played in the last league round against his '' alma mater'', as Tenerife won and the ''Merengues'' lost the national title for the second consecutive year against the same team. In 1997, after roughly 200 overall appearances for the

Canarians Canary Islanders, or Canarians ( es, canarios), are a Romance people and ethnic group. They reside on the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain near the coast of northwest Africa, and descend from a mixture of European settlers and ab ...

, Gómez was signed by

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

club

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

on a lucrative four-year contract, arriving at the same time as compatriot

Iván Helguera Iván Helguera Bujía (; born 28 March 1975) is a Spanish former professional footballer. Playing as either a central defender or defensive midfielder, with both good defensive and offensive skills, he represented five clubs during his professi ...

. However, he only played a total of 87 minutes in his first season, including a lone start in a ''

Derby della Capitale The Derby della Capitale ( en, Derby of the capital city), also known as Derby Capitolino and Derby del Cupolone, as well as The Rome Derby in English and Derby di Roma in Italian, is the football local derby in Rome, Italy, between Lazio and Ro ...

'' 1–3 defeat to 10-man S.S. Lazio; he was successively removed from the first team following his refusal for a release by mutual consent, and spent the following three years without appearing in a single match. Gómez retired in 2001 after his contract expired, but stayed in the city, where he had opened a car shop in the

EUR The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . Th ...

neighbourhood in the meantime. It was then revealed he had been signed by Roma following a mistake from the club directors, who actually were interested in fellow Tenerife defender

Pablo Paz Pablo Ariel Paz Gallo (born 27 January 1973) is an Argentine retired footballer who played as a central defender. In a career that spanned 15 years he played more in Spain than in his homeland, notably with Tenerife for which he appeared in 12 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gomez, Cesar 1967 births Living people Footballers from Madrid Spanish footballers Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Valladolid players CD Tenerife players Serie A players AS Roma players Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Italy