David Villabona Echalecu (born 5 December 1969) 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 le ...

who played mostly as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an 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 central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. During his professional career he played for both

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 ...

and

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 ...

, amassing

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 ...

totals of 221 matches and 13 goals over 15 seasons. Villabona was a member of the Spanish side that won the gold medal at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Club career

Villabona was born in

Irun Irun ( es, Irún, eu, Irun) is a town of the Bidasoaldea region in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. History It lies on the foundations of the ancient Oiasso, cited as ...

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...

. In a career blighted by injuries, he started playing professionally with

, but only amassed seven

appearances in his first three seasons, being an undisputed starter however in 1989–90 as he helped the

Basques The Basques ( or ; eu, euskaldunak ; es, vascos ; french: basques ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Bas ...

to a final fifth place. Subsequently, Villabona joined neighbours

, being regularly used at the beginning but very little in his final campaign, facing stiff competition from

Josu Urrutia Josu Urrutia Tellería (born 10 April 1968) is a Spanish former Association football, footballer who played as a Midfielder#Defensive midfielder, defensive midfielder. His 17-year senior career was solely connected with Athletic Bilbao for which ...

and youngster

Julen Guerrero Julen Guerrero López (born 7 January 1974) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played solely for Athletic Bilbao as an attacking midfielder. He is the current manager of the Spain national under-17 team. He appeared in 430 offici ...

. His most steady period was lived at

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system ...

, being a very important midfield element for the

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

ns; due to recurrent injuries, however, he only appeared 12 times from 1997 to 2001 combined (none in the latter season as they finished second from the bottom), and retired at the age of 31.

Honours

Spain U23 *

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Villabona, David 1969 births Living people Sportspeople from Irun Spanish footballers Footballers from the Basque Country (autonomous community) Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División B players Real Sociedad B footballers Real Sociedad footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers Racing de Santander players Spain youth international footballers Spain under-21 international footballers Spain under-23 international footballers Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Spain Olympic gold medalists for Spain Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Basque Country international footballers