Francisco Javier Peral Periane (born 4 November 1983), known as Javito, is a Spanish retired 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 ...

Club career

Barcelona

Born in

Moraleja Moraleja is a municipality located in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura Extremadura (; ext, Estremaúra; pt, Estremadura; Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is an autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, and its largest city ...

Province of Cáceres The province of Cáceres ( ; es, provincia de Cáceres, ) is a province of western Spain, and makes up the northern half of the autonomous community of Extremadura. Its capital is the city of Cáceres. Other cities in the province include Pla ...

Extremadura Extremadura (; ext, Estremaúra; pt, Estremadura; Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is an autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, it ...

, Javito joined

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Found ...

's youth system at the age of 17, signing from his local club. He made his professional debuts with their reserves, playing two seasons in Segunda División B and scoring a career-best ten goals in 29 games in his first. Javito made his official debut for the first team on 7 December 2004, in a

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 competi ...

group stage match against FC Shakhtar Donetsk, playing the first half of the 0–2 away loss. However, he was unable to become a regular member of the main squad partly due to a long period on the sidelines as a result of

thrombosis Thrombosis (from Ancient Greek "clotting") is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel (a vein or an artery) is injured, the body uses platelets (t ...

Aris

Javito joined

Aris Thessaloniki F.C. Aris FC ( el, ΠΑΕ Άρης), commonly known as Aris Thessaloniki FC, AFC or simply Aris, is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. Created in 1914 as ''Aris Thessaloniki Football Club'', t ...

in the summer of 2006, being the first of several Spaniards that would move to the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

club in the following years as a result of the solid relationships between agent Manel Ferrer – an Aris collaborator – and the Spanish transfer market. He immediately established himself in the side's starting XI, helping them to the fourth position in the Superleague just one year after promoting. In the 2007–08 playoffs, Javito netted twice in a 4–0 home win against

AEK Athens FC AEK FC ( el, ΠΑΕ A.E.K. ; Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; ''Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos'', meaning ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filad ...

. Previously, on 4 October 2007, he scored in a 1–2 loss at

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at L ...

as his team won 2–2 on aggregate and qualified to the group stages in the

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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

. After his solid late performances for Aris, as his contract was due to expire, Javi signed for a further three years, earning an approximate annual wage of

€ 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 ...

180.000. He started the 2008–09 campaign in great individual form, and scored the winning goal against

Olympiacos F.C. Olympiacos Club of Fans of Piraeus ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σ.Φ.Π. ), known simply as Olympiacos or Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional football club based in Piraeus, Attica. Part of the major multi-sport club Olympiacos CFP ('' ...

on 26 October 2008 (1–0), breaking the ten-year record of invincibility that their opponents held at the

Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium The Kleanthis Vikelidis Stadium () or Charilaou Ground (Γήπεδο Χαριλάου) is a football stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece. It was built in 1951 as the home stadium of Aris F.C. (Thessaloniki), one of the most popular football clubs in ...

. On 16 September 2010, Javito scored the game's only goal at home against Europa League title holders Atlético Madrid, and also played the full 90 minutes in the second game at the

Vicente Calderón Stadium The Vicente Calderón Stadium ( es, Estadio Vicente Calderón ) was the home stadium of Atlético Madrid from its completion in 1966 to 2017, with a seating capacity of 54,907 and located on the banks of the Manzanares, in the Arganzuela distr ...

(3–2 win) with the Greek eventually finishing second in the group stage at the expense of precisely the opposition.

Deportivo / Olympiakos

On 31 January 2011, Javito returned to his country and joined

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' ...

club

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 would not make one single appearance during his four-month spell due to bureaucratic problems, which included the lack of his signature in the document sent to FIFA, with the

Galicians Galicians ( gl, galegos, es, gallegos, link=no) are a Celtic-Romance ethnic group from Spain that is closely related to the Portuguese people and has its historic homeland is Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance la ...

eventually being relegated. Javito returned to Greece in ensuing off-season as he signed with Olympiacos, which again featured several compatriots as manager

Ernesto Valverde Ernesto Valverde Tejedor (born 9 February 1964) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a forward. He is the current manager of La Liga club Athletic Bilbao. Over ten seasons, he amassed La Liga totals of 264 games and 68 ...

. In September 2012, his contract was terminated.

Back to Spain

In late December 2012, Javito signed with Segunda División side Hércules CF. He contributed with nine starts until the end of the season (748 minutes of action), moving to fellow league club

AD Alcorcón Agrupación Deportiva Alcorcón S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Alcorcón, in the autonomous community of Madrid. Founded in 1971, it currently plays in Primera Federación – Group 1, holding home matches at the Municipal de Sant ...

subsequently.

Return to Greece

In summer 2014, Javito returned to Greece and its top level, agreeing to a one-year deal with

PAE Kerkyra PAE Kerkyra ( el, ΠΑΕ Κέρκυρα), was a Greek football club based in Corfu, Greece. The club played in the Gamma Ethniki, the fourth tier of the Greek football league system, following changes to the league structure in 2019. It played i ...

. The following year, he signed a one-year contract with fellow league club Panthrakikos FC.

International career

Javito earned his only

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for the Spain under-21 team on 7 June 2005, coming on as a late substitute for Jaime Gavilán in a 4–2 win against

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

for the 2006 UEFA European Championship qualifiers.

Club statistics

References

External links

* *
Deportivo archives
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Javito 1983 births Living people Footballers from the Province of Cáceres Spanish men's footballers Men's association football wingers Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players FC Barcelona C players FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Barcelona players Deportivo de La Coruña players Hércules CF players AD Alcorcón footballers CD Guijuelo footballers Super League Greece players Aris Thessaloniki F.C. players Olympiacos F.C. players PAE Kerkyra players Panthrakikos F.C. players Süper Lig players Orduspor footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Turkey