Enrique Mata (footballer)

Enrique Mata (born 10 May 1957) is a Spanish-Swiss retired footballer who played in the late 1970s, the 1980s and early 1990s. He played mainly as an attacking midfielder, but also as a forward.

Mata played his youth football with FC Nordstern Basel and advanced to their first team in the 1977–78 season. At the end of that season Nordstern achieved promotion as division champions to the Nationalliga A. The following season Mata suffered relegation with Nordstern, the team coming last in the relegation round, but Mata stayed with the club. The following season Nordstern again achieved promotion as division runners-up. Mata also played the following season with the club.

But soon after the start of the 1981–82 season he moved on to FC Grenchen one league lower. Here he played for only half a year and again Mata moved on, this time to Xamax. Mata was always first choice midfielder by Xamax and played three seasons for the club.

Mata joined FC Basel's first team in their 1985–86 season under team manager Helmut Benthaus. After playing in five test games, Mata played his domestic league debut for his new club in the home game in the St. Jakob Stadium on 7 August 1985 as Basel played against Luzern. Mata scored his first goal for his club just three days later on 10 August in the away game against Vevey-Sports. It was the first goal of the game in the 6th minute, but it could not help Basel to a victory, the result was a 2–2 draw.

Mata stayed with Basel for six seasons. Mata injured himself in the 1986–87 season and this kept him out for longer than half a year. Despite suffering relegation at the end of their 1987–88 season Mata stayed with the club until the end of the 1990–91 season. Between the years 1985 and 1991 Mata played a total of 173 games for Basel scoring a total of 30 goals; 104 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, 14 in the Swiss Cup and 55 were friendly games. He scored 18 goals in the domestic league, five in the cup and the other seven were scored during the test games.

After his time with Basel, Mata retired from professional football and moved on and he played one season for local team FC Laufen in the 1st League.

References

Sources

* Rotblau: Jahrbuch Saison 2017/2018. Publisher: FC Basel Marketing AG.
* Die ersten 125 Jahre. Publisher: Josef Zindel im Friedrich Reinhardt Verlag, Basel.

Verein "Basler Fussballarchiv" Homepage

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mata, Enrique
FC Nordstern Basel players
FC Grenchen players
Neuchâtel Xamax FCS players
FC Basel players
FC Laufen players
Swiss men's footballers
Spanish men's footballers
Men's association football midfielders
Men's association football forwards
1957 births
Living people
Footballers from Valencia
Swiss Super League players