Diego Ribera Ramírez (born 19 February 1977) is a Spanish retired (in Ribarroja CF)

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 as a

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, and is the current

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of Real Valladolid.

Club career

Born in Riba-roja de Túria, Valencian Community, Ribera emerged through local Valencia CF's youth ranks. On 13 February 1994, six days shy of his 17th birthday, he made his La Liga debut, playing nearly 40 minutes in a 0–1 away loss against CD Tenerife and being one of the youngest players ever to first appear in the competition. For the 1996–97 season, definitely released by the ''Che'', Ribera joined

UE Figueres Unió Esportiva Figueres is a Spanish football team based in Figueres, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1919 and refounded in 2007 it plays in the Primera Catalana league, holding home matches at ''Estadi Municipal de Vilateni ...

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 ...

, being top scorer in Group III. Subsequently, he returned to the top division with RCD Espanyol but, as in his previous spell, spent most of the campaign with the reserves, only appearing once in that level and also being loaned, now to Recreativo de Huelva. Ribera spent the following three seasons in

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 ...

, promoting in 2001 with Sevilla FC but being relegated the following year with Real Jaén. He played mainly in division three subsequently, his last spell in the second tier being the first half of 2006–07 with SD Ponferradina (13 games, team relegation). In February 2009, after a few months without a team, Ribera signed with his hometown club Ribarroja CF, in Tercera División.

International career

Ribera was capped by Spain at youth level, winning the UEFA European Under-18 Championship in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and finishing third in the previous year. Later, he represented the under-20s at the

1997 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, known as the 1997 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Youth Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 11th staging of the FIFA World Youth Championship. It was held from 16 June to 5 July 1997 in Malaysia. It was th ...

in Malaysia, playing five games and scoring once for the eventual quarter-finalists.

References

External links

*
Stats and bio at CiberChe
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ribera, Diego 1977 births Living people People from Camp de Túria Footballers from the Province of Valencia Spanish men's footballers Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Valencia CF players Hércules CF players Valencia CF Mestalla footballers UE Figueres footballers RCD Espanyol B footballers RCD Espanyol footballers Recreativo de Huelva players Córdoba CF players Sevilla FC players Real Jaén footballers Gimnàstic de Tarragona footballers Girona FC players Alicante CF footballers SD Ponferradina players Orihuela CF players Spain men's youth international footballers