Enric Gallego Puigsech (born 12 September 1986) 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 as a striker for

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 ...

Club career

Early career

Born in

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 ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

, Gallego had several working-class jobs alongside his amateur footballing career, such as lorry driver, builder and air conditioning installer. He made his senior debut with UD Buen Pastor in the 2006–07 season, in the regional leagues. In January 2009, he joined

Tercera División Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the '' Segunda División'', and the semi-professional '' Segunda ...

club CE Premià after a prolific spell at Alzamora CF. In June 2009, Gallego signed for

RCD Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league s ...

and was immediately assigned to their reserves in Segunda División B. After featuring sparingly, he moved to

UE Cornellà Unión Esportiva Cornellà, S. A. D. ( ca, Unió Esportiva Cornellà) is a Spanish football team based in Cornellà de Llobregat, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1951 it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding ...

of the fourth division, scoring five goals in a 6–0 away win against

FC Ascó Futbol Club Ascó is a Spanish football team based in Ascó, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 2010 it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 5, holding home matches at ''Estadio Municipal'', which has a capacity of 1,500 ...

on 31 October 2010. He remained a regular in the following years as well as acting as captain a being a locker room reference, as his team missed out promotion in 2013. On 8 July 2013, Gallego agreed a contract with division three side

CF Badalona Club de Fútbol Badalona () is a Spanish football team based in Badalona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1903 it plays in Tercera Federación – Group 5, temporarily holding home games at Estadi Municipal de Badalona, wit ...

, where he had already played as a youth. On 25 June 2014, he moved to

UE Olot Unió Esportiva Olot, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Olot, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1921, it plays in Segunda Federación RFEF – Group 3, holding home games at '' Estadi Municipal d'Olot'', with a capac ...

in the same tier, before moving back to Cornellà the following January.

Extremadura

On 2 January 2018, Gallego joined

Extremadura UD Extremadura Unión Deportiva was a Spanish football team based in Almendralejo, in the autonomous community of Extremadura. Founded in 2007, it last played in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, holding home games at '' Estadio Francisco de la He ...

also in the third division, after the club triggered his

€ 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 ...

200,000 release clause. He scored 28 goals in total during the campaign, and achieved promotion to the Segunda División with Extremadura. Gallego made his debut as a full-time professional at the age of 31 years and 11 months on 24 August 2018, starting in a 0–1 home loss against

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. They currently play in the Primera División RFEF – ...

. He scored his first goal in the second tier on 9 September, in a 1–3 defeat to

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. (), known simply as Granada, is a Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that plays in the Segunda División, after being relegated from La Liga in the 2021� ...

at the

Estadio Francisco de la Hera Estadio Francisco de la Hera is a football stadium in Almendralejo, Spain. It is the home ground of CD Extremadura 1924. CF Extremadura’s first permanent ground was called Campo de Santa Aurora which was on Camino Alange. This was used from 192 ...

. On 22 September 2018, Gallego scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a 4–1 away rout of CF Rayo Majadahonda, and added four goals in a 4–1 victory at CF Reus Deportiu on 17 November. He was awarded the Player of the Month accolade for December.

Huesca

On 16 January 2019, Gallego signed a two-and-a-half-year deal with

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' ...

strugglers

SD Huesca Sociedad Deportiva Huesca, S.A.D., is a Spanish football club in Huesca, in the autonomous community of Aragon. Founded on 29 March 1960, SD Huesca plays in the Segunda División, having played in the Spanish top division for the first time in ...

, for a rumoured fee of €2 million. Three days later, he made his debut in the league, starting in a 0–3 home loss against Atlético Madrid. He scored his first goal in the competition on 1 February, the opener in a 4–0 home win over

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 ...

Getafe

On 8 July 2019, Gallego agreed to a three-year contract with Getafe CF after his €6 million release clause was met. He made his debut for the club on 18 August, playing 11 minutes in a 1–0 defeat at Atlético Madrid. Gallego's maiden appearance in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

occurred on 19 September 2019, as he started in a 1–0 home win against

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish sports club located in the city of Trabzon. Formed in 1967 through a merger of several local clubs, the men's football team has won seven Süper Lig championships. Trabzonspor also have a women's football team, ...

in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

Osasuna

On 28 January 2020, after being rarely used, Gallego was loaned to fellow league team

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El S ...

with an obligatory buyout clause if the team avoid relegation. In July, after this was achieved, he signed a permanent contract until 2022 for a €2 million fee. Gallego left the

El Sadar Stadium Estadio El Sadar (; known as ''Estadio Reyno de Navarra'' from 2005 to 2011, ) is a football stadium in Pamplona, Navarre, Spain. The stadium holds 23,576 people. It was built in 1967 and is the home of Osasuna. It is currently used mostly for fo ...

on 12 August 2021, having scored four times from 40 matches.

Tenerife

On 24 August 2021, Gallego agreed to a two-year deal at second-tier

International career

In March 2019, Gallego was called up to the Catalonia representative team for a friendly against

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. However, Huesca refused to let him and Álex Gallar take part in the match.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gallego, Enric 1986 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Barcelona Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol players CE Premià players RCD Espanyol B footballers UE Cornellà players CF Badalona players UE Olot players Extremadura UD footballers SD Huesca footballers Getafe CF footballers CA Osasuna players CD Tenerife players Bricklayers Spanish bricklayers