Garikoitz 'Gari' Uranga Luluaga (born 21 June 1980) 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 ...

. Usually a left winger, he could also operate as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Club career

Uranga was born in Tolosa, Gipuzkoa. A product of

Basque Country Basque Country may refer to: * Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map) * French Basque Country o ...

giants

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

's youth system, he played one game for its first team in 2001–02's La Liga then spent two seasons on loan in the second division, being instrumental to

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol (), or simply Getafe, is a professional football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. The team competes in La Liga, the highest tier of the Spanish football system. The club's home stadium (owned and op ...

's first ever top-flight promotion. Over the next four seasons after his return, Uranga would be regularly used by Real Sociedad, for instance going through 33 scoreless matches in 2005–06 and missing several months the following campaign, which ended in relegation after 40 years, due to a

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

injury. His father Luis was also club president during that period. After his contract expired, Uranga signed a two-year deal with CD Castellón also in the second tier. He retired in June 2010 at only 30 after the Valencian Community side suffered relegation, having made 225 appearances at the professional level in an eight-year career (22 goals).

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Uranga, Gari 1980 births Living people People from Tolosa, Spain Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Gipuzkoa Men's association football wingers La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Real Sociedad B footballers Real Sociedad footballers SD Eibar footballers Getafe CF footballers CD Castellón footballers Basque Country men's international footballers