Fernando Sánchez Cipitria (born 12 September 1971), known simply as Fernando, is a Spanish former 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 le ...

who played mostly as a

left midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, currently

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Chinese Champions League The Chinese Football Association Member Association Champions League (Simplified Chinese: 中国足球协会会员协会冠军联赛), or CMCL, former known as Chinese Football Association Bing League (中国足球协会丙级联赛) (before 2006 ...

club Xinjiang Silk Road Eagle. He appeared in 201 La Liga matches over seven seasons (27 goals), for four clubs.

Club career

Fernando was born in Madrid. An unsuccessful youth graduate from

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 ...

, he made his La Liga debut with Real Valladolid in the 1995–96 season, with the side being coached by a young Rafael Benítez and also featuring former

Real Madrid Castilla Real Madrid Castilla Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team that plays in Primera Federación – Group 1 for the 2022–23 season. It is Real Madrid's reserve team. They play their home games at the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium with a cap ...

teammates

José Luis Santamaría José Luis Santamaría Buitrago (born 14 January 1973) is a Spanish retired footballer who played mainly as a central defender. Club career After unsuccessfully rising through the ranks of Real Madrid, Madrid-born Santamaría joined Real Vallad ...

and

Alberto Marcos Alberto Marcos Rey (born 15 February 1974) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a left back. After not being able to establish himself at Real Madrid, he went to play for 15 professional seasons with Valladolid, experiencing two relega ...

. In the following campaign, with Fernando scoring a career-best 11 goals, the

Castile and León Castile and León ( es, Castilla y León ; ast-leo, Castiella y Llión ; gl, Castela e León ) is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983, eight years after the end of the Francoist regime, by the merging of the ...

team qualified for the UEFA Cup after finishing seventh. Subsequently, he signed with Real Betis, posting two respectable top-flight seasons and netting his only goal in the UEFA Cup on 3 November 1998 in a 3–0 second-round home win over

Willem II Willem II may refer to: People * William II, Prince of Orange (1626–1650), stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands * William II of the Netherlands (1792–1849), King of the Netherlands Other uses * Willem II (football club), a Du ...

. Fernando joined Deportivo de La Coruña for 1999–2000, and appeared in 19 games for the Galicians in their first-ever championship title. He would, however, soon be deemed surplus to requirements, and served three consecutive loans until his retirement at 32: he played the first part of the 2002–03 campaign at

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

in Germany alongside teammates Jaime (also with him at Real Madrid) and José Manuel, but soon grew unsettled and returned to Spain.

International career

Fernando earned two caps for the Spain national team over the course of two months. His first arrived on 28 January 1998, as he came on as an 82nd-minute substitute for

Guillermo Amor Guillermo Amor Martínez (; born 4 December 1967) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a versatile midfielder. After spending most of his professional career with Barcelona, winning several accolades in a ten-year tenure, he ended it i ...

in a 1–0 away

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

loss against France.

Coaching career

After retiring, Fernando focused on youth training. In 2012, he joined

Evergrande Football School Evergrande Football School is a football school located in Qingyuan, Guangdong, China. Owned by the Evergrande Group The China Evergrande Group is the second largest property developer in China by sales. It is ranked 122nd on the ''Fortun ...

founded by Guangzhou Evergrande, where he worked as technical director and head coach. Fernando joined

Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard F.C. () is a professional Chinese football club that participates in the China League One division under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Ürümqi, Xinjiang and their home stadium ...

's youth side in the 2018 season, and was promoted to the first team on 1 January 2019. On 8 February 2024, he took on the role as manager of

club Xinjiang Silk Road Eagle.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernando Sanchez 1971 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Real Madrid C footballers Real Madrid Castilla footballers CD Leganés players Real Valladolid players Real Betis players Deportivo de La Coruña players CA Osasuna players Córdoba CF players Bundesliga players Hannover 96 players Spain men's international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Spanish football managers Tercera División managers China League One managers Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard F.C. managers Spanish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in China Spanish expatriate sportspeople in China