Iñaki Muñoz Oroz (born 2 July 1978) 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 ...

who played mainly as a

defensive 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 boundari ...

. He amassed

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' ...

totals of 150 matches and 11 goals over nine seasons, representing in the competition Osasuna and Athletic Bilbao.

Club career

Osasuna

Muñoz was born in

Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...

, Navarre. Except for a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

-long loan to

CD Toledo Club Deportivo Toledo, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Toledo, in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. Founded in 1928 it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 18, holding home games at ''Estadio Salto del Caballo'', w ...

in the Segunda División B he played ten senior seasons with hometown club

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El S ...

, the first and the second teams combined. He made his

debut with the former on 23 December 2001, coming on as a late substitute in a 0–1 home loss against Athletic Bilbao. Muñoz went on to become an important first-team member, appearing in 30 games during 2005–06 as they finished fourth in the league and qualified for the

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 ...

while scoring five goals in as many wins, notably the winners at

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 – ...

and Atlético Madrid. In the previous campaign's

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

, he netted five times in eight matches to help Osasuna reach the final of the competition, notably once in a 3–1 quarter-final home victory over

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA E ...

(4–3 aggregate).

Athletic Bilbao

Muñoz switched west for 2007–08, moving to

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

neighbours Athletic Bilbao on a three-year contract. He appeared sparingly in his first season, and even less in

the second ''The Second'' is the second studio album by Canadian-American rock band Steppenwolf, released in October 1968 on ABC Dunhill Records. The album contains one of Steppenwolf's most famous songs, " Magic Carpet Ride". The background of the orig ...

and third – his 2009–10 output consisted of 30 minutes against Deportivo in the last matchday. Muñoz scored his only competitive goal for the side on 31 January 2008, in a 3–3 home draw with

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league syst ...

in the Spanish Cup quarter-finals.

Later years

In summer 2010, aged 32,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

Muñoz signed with

FC Cartagena Fútbol Club Cartagena, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Cartagena, in the Region of Murcia, Spain. Founded in 1995 it currently plays in Segunda División, holding home games at ''Estadio Cartagonova'', with a capacity of 15,105 spe ...

of the Segunda División. He retired three years later, after lower-league spells at

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 blac ...

and

CD Izarra Club Deportivo Izarra is a Spanish football team based in Estella-Lizarra, in the autonomous community of Navarre. Founded in 1924 it plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 2, holding home matches at '' Estadio Merkatondoa'', with a capacity ...

International career

Muñoz represented both the

and Navarrese autonomous teams,Navarra vence con gol de Muñoz y perdona la goleada (Navarra win with goal from Muñoz and forgive routing)
Diario AS, 26 December 2005 (in Spanish) earning six

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

in total.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Munoz, Inaki 1978 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Pamplona Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players CA Osasuna B players CA Osasuna players CD Toledo players Athletic Bilbao footballers FC Cartagena footballers UD Salamanca players CD Izarra footballers Spain youth international footballers Basque Country international footballers