Iker Pozo La Rosa (born 6 August 2000) is a Spanish

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 currently plays as a

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 ...

for the

Croatian Football League The Hrvatska nogometna liga () ( en, Croatian football league), also known as HNL or for sponsorship reasons the SuperSport HNL, is the top Croatian professional football league competition, established in 1992. Previously, it was called Prva ...

side

HNK Šibenik Hrvatski nogometni klub Šibenik ( en, Croatian Football Club Šibenik), better known as HNK Šibenik or simply Šibenik (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Šibenik. It competes in the Croatian Football League, and plays their ...

Career

Early career

Pozo's earliest football career was influenced by his older brother José Ángel's, as, when

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 ...

brought the older Pozo from UD Fuengirola Los Boliches, the entire family moved to

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 ...

, and Iker joined the Real Madrid academy.Talentscout - Iker Pozo
at the Keuken Kampioen divisie official site Five years later, when José Ángel was snapped up by

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

, the younger Pozo, aged 11, followed him to the Manchester City academy. In the 2017/18 season he featured in the U19 team's

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the youth teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions League ...

run up to the semi-finals, featuring in 6 matches and gathering 2 assists.Iker Pozo y Nabil Touazi, los jóvenes españoles que ya marcan en el City de Guardiola
at MarcaHe was also moved to the U23 team, where he would feature for in the subsequent two seasons as well.

FC Eindhoven

Pozo joined the Dutch second-tier side

FC Eindhoven FC Eindhoven is a Dutch football club based in Eindhoven, North Brabant. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie (second tier of Dutch football), and are one of two professional clubs which are based in the city of Eindhoven, the other one bei ...

for a season-long loan in the summer of 2020. He quickly established himself as a starter at the club, playing mostly in a more forward central midfield role than the defensive one he played at

City A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

, resulting in his first three senior goals.

Loans to Croatian clubs

In February 2022, Pozo was loaned to

HNK Rijeka Hrvatski nogometni klub Rijeka ( en, Croatian Football Club Rijeka), commonly referred to as NK Rijeka or simply Rijeka, is a Croatian professional association football, football club from the city of Rijeka. HNK Rijeka compete in Croatia's top ...

. Kakav pehist! Igrač Man. Cityja potpisao za Rijeku pa se teško ozlijedio na prvom treningu
at 24 Sata In the first week, before the official paperwork arrived, he impressed the staff at the club. On his first training session after the loan was officially finalized, however, he injured his knee. After the magnetic resonance showed the injury was serious, his loan was canceled and he returned to Manchester, not having played a single official game for the club.Prošao je školu Reala, bio u Man. Cityju, a sada potpisao za hrvatskog prvoligaša: ‘Ovo je ozbiljan projekt‘
at Sportske Novosti In February 2023, Pozo joined

Career statistics

Club

;Notes

References

2000 births Living people Spanish footballers Spanish expatriate footballers Association football midfielders Real Madrid CF players Manchester City F.C. players FC Eindhoven players Eerste Divisie players Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Croatia {{Spain-footy-midfielder-stub