Ibán Javier Cuadrado Alonso (; born 21 February 1979) is a Spanish football manager and 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 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 amassed

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

totals of 248 games and five goals over the course of eight seasons, mainly in representation of

Real Murcia Real Murcia Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., commonly known as Real Murcia (, "Royal Murcia"), is a Spanish football club based in Murcia, in the Región de Murcia. Founded in 1919, it currently plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, playing ho ...

. He also spent four years in

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 ...

, two apiece with that club and

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 ...

for a total of 62 matches.

Club career

Cuadrado was born in

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritag ...

Region of León The Region of León, Leonese region or Leonese Country ( Leonese: ''País Llionés'', es, región de León and ast, rexón de Llión) is a historic territory defined by the 1833 Spanish administrative organisation. The Leonese region encompa ...

. A product of

giants

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. Founded ...

, he would play almost exclusively for their

B team B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It r ...

in both the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

and third divisions. Courtesy of

Louis van Gaal Aloysius Paulus Maria "Louis" van Gaal (; born 8 August 1951) is a Dutch former football player and manager. At club level, he served as manager of Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, as well as having three spel ...

, he appeared in one

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 ...

game with the main squad, featuring one minute in a 2–0 group-stage away win over

Brøndby IF Brøndbyernes Idrætsforening (, usually abbreviated to Brøndby IF (), is a professional association football club based in Brøndbyvester, Capital Region of Denmark. The club was founded in 1964 as a merger between two local clubs and was p ...

on 9 December 1998. Released by the

Catalans Catalans (Catalan language, Catalan, French language, French and Occitan language, Occitan: ''catalans''; es, catalanes, Italian language, Italian: ''catalani'', sc, cadelanos) are a Romance languages, Romance ethnic group native to Cataloni ...

in 2001, Cuadrado signed with

, where he would be an indispensable element throughout seven seasons, helping to two promotions (although he appeared in just ten matches in the 2007–08 campaign, which ended in

relegation). Subsequently, Cuadrado joined

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, ...

, recently promoted to the top flight, where he was only third or fourth choice. On 14 January 2010 he moved to

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. Rayo was founded on 29 May 1924, and currently compete in La Lig ...

, signing with the second-tier side until the end of that season and the next. He made his debut three days later, starting in the 4–4 home draw against

Hércules CF Hércules de Alicante Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a Spanish football team in Alicante, in the autonomous community of Valencian Community. Founded on 25 October 1922, it currently plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 3 and plays its hom ...

and scoring an

own goal An own goal, also called a self goal, is where a player performs actions that result in them or their team scoring a goal on themselves, often resulting in a point for the opposing team, such as when a football player kicks a ball into their own ...

. After one unsuccessful season with Rayo individually, the 31-year-old Cuadrado switched to

SD Ponferradina Sociedad Deportiva Ponferradina, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Ponferrada, in the El Bierzo region, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 7 June 1922, it plays in Segunda División, holding home matches at the ...

of division two, reuniting with former Málaga teammates Javi López,

Daniel Toribio Daniel Toribio Gutiérrez (born 5 October 1988) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Andorran club FC Santa Coloma. Club career Born in Girona, Catalonia, Toribio was a product of FC Barcelona's youth academy. He jo ...

and Miguel Ángel. In summer 2011, following his team'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. ...

, he returned to his hometown and signed with lowly

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 ...

. Cuadrado moved abroad for the first time in his career at the age of 34, joining

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...

's Shanghai SIPG FC. In March 2015 he switched clubs but stayed in the nation, transferring to

Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng F.C. Guizhou FC (; ) was a professional Chinese Association football, football club. The team was based in Guiyang, Guizhou and their home stadium was the 51,636 seater Guiyang Olympic Sports Center. Their majority shareholders were Hengfeng Real Esta ...

from the

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

. In October 2018, Cuadrado returned to the

Camp Nou Camp Nou (, meaning ''new field'', often referred to in English as the Nou Camp), officially branded as Spotify Camp Nou for sponsorship and financial reasons, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It has been the home stadium of FC Barcelo ...

, as youth assistant coach.Ibán Cuadrado regresa al Barça y se enrola en La Masia (Ibán Cuadrado returns to Barça and is added to La Masia)
Be Soccer, 3 October 2018 (in Spanish)

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cuadrado, Iban 1979 births Living people Footballers from Salamanca Spanish men's footballers Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players FC Barcelona C players FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Barcelona players Real Murcia CF players Málaga CF players Rayo Vallecano players SD Ponferradina players UD Salamanca players Chinese Super League players China League One players Shanghai Port F.C. players Guizhou F.C. players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in China Spanish expatriate sportspeople in China FC Barcelona non-playing staff