Fernando Sanz Durán (born 4 January 1974) is a Spanish former

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

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He spent seven years of his professional career with

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

– after starting out at

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

– appearing in 228 official games. Subsequently, he worked for four years as the club's president.

Club career

Real Madrid

Born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, Sanz was a product of

's youth system and, after a quick loan stint with Unión Española in Chile, first appeared with the main squad on 2 March 1996, playing nine minutes of a 5–0 home win against

UD Salamanca Unión Deportiva Salamanca, S.A.D. () was a historical Spanish football team based in Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 February 1923 and nicknamed ''Los Charros'', the club played in white shirts and black ...

( José García Calvo, another centre back from the academy, also played his first

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 ...

game that day). He finished the season with 13 appearances, playing a further six matches in the following as the team were crowned league champions. Sanz was also part of their

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

victory in 1997–98. However, despite being the son of

Lorenzo Sanz Lorenzo Sanz Mancebo (9 August 1943 – 21 March 2020) was a Spanish businessman who was the 14th President of Real Madrid and a former owner of Málaga CF. Early life He was born in August 1943 in a humble family in Madrid, being the eldest ...

, the president of the club at the time, he never really managed to hold up a regular first team spot at Real.

Málaga

For the start of 1999–2000, Sanz signed with

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a association football, football club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, that competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, ...

. On 8 September 2001 he scored his first goal as a professional, in a 1–1 draw at his former employers. That season, the

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

side finished tenth and he helped it win the subsequent Intertoto Cup, which eventually led to a

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

quarter-final run, with the player appearing in eight complete games. Sanz retired from football in 2006 after Málaga'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. ...

, with 240 matches and five goals in the top level to his credit, immediately becoming its president after his father bought 97% of the shares. After four years, he resigned on 27 July 2010 as the club was sold earlier in the summer to a

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

i investor.

Personal life

Sanz is the brother-in-law of another Real Madrid player, Míchel Salgado – the two were never teammates, as Salgado arrived the year Sanz left the club – who married his sister Malula. His older brother, Francisco, was also a footballer.

Honours

Real Madrid *

: 1996–97 *

: 1997–98 * Intercontinental Cup:

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

Málaga *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanz, Fernando 1974 births Living people Footballers from Madrid Spanish footballers Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Madrid C footballers Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players Málaga CF players Chilean Primera División players Unión Española footballers UEFA Champions League winning players Spain youth international footballers Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Chile Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Chile Spanish football chairmen and investors Sanz family