Diego Mariño Villar (born 9 May 1990) 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 ...

who plays for

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 ...

as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. Formed at

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

, he spent most of his career in the Segunda División with that club's first and second teams as well 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, ...

, making 289 appearances. He also played 85

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' ...

games for Vallladolid, Levante and Sporting.

Club career

Villarreal

Born in

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it sits on the southern shore of an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, the ...

, Galicia, Mariño played for

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or simply Villarreal, is a professional football club based in Villarreal, in the Castellón province of eastern Spain, ...

since the age of 14, having already represented four teams as a youth. He made his professional debut in the 2010–11 season, helping the reserves barely avoid relegation from the Segunda División while appearing in 38 games. Mariño was again first choice the following campaign, but as the main squad suffered relegation in

the B's were forced to drop down to Segunda División B even though they had finished in a comfortable 12th position. After the departures of longtime incumbent Diego López and 41-year-old

César Sánchez César Sánchez Domínguez (; born 2 September 1971), sometimes known as simply César, is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper. In 20 La Liga seasons, he played 401 games, with Valladolid, Real Madrid, Zaragoza, Valencia ...

(the latter retired), he was promoted to the first team by manager

Julio Velázquez Julio Velázquez Santiago (born 5 October 1981) is a Spanish football manager, currently in charge of Eredivisie club Fortuna Sittard. He began coaching at 15, and was the youngest ever Segunda División manager with Villarreal B at 30. He ma ...

– also his boss in the second side.

Valladolid and Levante

Mariño signed a five-year contract 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 c ...

on 5 July 2013, with Villarreal retaining an option to buy him back for

€ 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 ...

300,000. He made his debut in the top flight on 17 August, in a 1–2 home loss against Athletic Bilbao. On 8 August 2014, Mariño moved to Levante UD of the same league 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 ...

-long loan. On 31 August of the following year, he signed a permanent three-year deal with the club.

Sporting Gijón

On 1 July 2016, after Levante's

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

, Mariño joined

for four years. Second choice to

Iván Cuéllar Iván Cuéllar Sacristán (born 27 May 1984), nicknamed Pichu, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Sporting de Gijón. Formed at Atlético Madrid, he spent most of his career with Sporting de Gijón, where he made ...

, he made his debut on 26 November in a 2–1 loss at leaders Real Madrid. On 18 January 2018, Mariño extended his contract until 2022. Between 4 February and 1 April he was unbeaten during 764 minutes and, at the end of the season, he was named Sporting's player of the year. In August 2019, another year was added to Mariño's contract. He remained first-choice at

El Molinón Estadio El Molinón (), officially Estadio Municipal El Molinón-Enrique Castro "Quini", is an association football stadium in Gijón, Asturias, Spain. The stadium is the home ground of Real Sporting de Gijón. With a capacity of 29,029 seats, El ...

in the ensuing seasons, even after the re-acquisition of Cuéllar in 2021. He suffered a right

hamstring In human anatomy, a hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury. In quadrupe ...

injury the following March and was replaced by the latter for ten games as the side successfully fought relegation, returning on 29 May for the final match of the campaign in a 1–0 home defeat against

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Las Palmas, on the island of Gran Canaria in the autonomous community of Canary Islands. Founded on 22 August 1949, it plays in Segunda División, holding home games at t ...

Almería

On 26 January 2023, Mariño returned to the top tier after agreeing to an 18-month contract with

International career

Mariño won his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for the Spain under-21 team in 2011. Also that year, he was selected by manager Luis Milla for his

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

squad; in the tournament in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, he was a backup to Atlético Madrid's

David de Gea David de Gea Quintana (born 7 November 1990) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Manchester United. During the mid-2010s, he was widely regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Born in Madrid ...

as the nation won its third title in the category. The following year, Mariño repeated the role for the under-23 side in a group-stage exit at the Summer Olympic Games in Great Britain.

Honours

Spain U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

: 2011,

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

Spain U17 *

FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fédération ...

runner-up: 2007

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Marino, Diego 1990 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Vigo Association football goalkeepers La Liga players Segunda División players Tercera División players Villarreal CF C players Villarreal CF B players Villarreal CF players Real Valladolid players Levante UD footballers Sporting de Gijón players UD Almería players Spain youth international footballers Spain under-21 international footballers Spain under-23 international footballers Footballers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Spain