Jacobo Sanz Ovejero (born 10 July 1983), known simply as Jacobo, 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 ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. A controversial figure, he played 68

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 ...

matches over five seasons, representing

Valladolid Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...

, Numancia and

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

in the competition. He appeared for

Getafe Getafe () is a municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city centre, within a flat ar ...

and Valladolid 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 ...

, and also competed professionally in Greece.

Club career

Valladolid and Numancia

Jacobo was born in

. A product of

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club colo ...

's youth system – he joined the club at the age of only seven – he served two loan stints before returning in the 2005–06 season, with the

Castile and León Castile and León ( es, Castilla y León ; ast-leo, Castiella y Llión ; gl, Castela e León ) is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983, eight years after the end of the Francoist regime, by the merging of the ...

club in

. He would only be third choice during that period, and his official debut occurred on 1 October 2005 in a 3–2 away win over Real Madrid Castilla; his second league game was also against that opponent, five months later (1–0 home victory). In 2007–08, Jacobo contributed 32 games to

CD Numancia Club Deportivo Numancia de Soria, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club in Soria, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 April 1945, it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding home games at ''Nuevo Estadio Los ...

's return to

after a three-year absence. He had been signed to a two-year deal with Valladolid keeping two re-buy options on the player, and conceded just 28 goals during the campaign, only trailing

CD Castellón Club Deportivo Castellón, S.A.D. is a professional Spanish football team based in Castellón de la Plana, in the Valencian Community. Founded on 20 July 1922, it currently plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding home games at '' N ...

's Carlos Sánchez in the

Ricardo Zamora Trophy The Zamora Trophy ( es, Trofeo Ricardo Zamora, link=no) is a football award, established by Spanish newspaper '' MARCA'' in 1958. The award goes to the goalkeeper who has the lowest "goals-to-games" ratio.Similar to goals against average in ic ...

race.

Getafe

Jacobo returned to Valladolid in July 2008, signing a new three-year contract. However, injuries to Getafe CF's keepers, Argentines

Roberto Abbondanzieri Roberto Carlos "Pato" Abbondanzieri (born Abbondancieri on 19 August 1972) is an Argentine professional former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He spent most of his career at Boca Juniors in his homeland, as well as Getafe of La Liga and ...

(a couple of weeks) and

Oscar Ustari Oscar Alfredo Ustari (born 3 July 1986) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Liga MX club Pachuca. After starting out at Independiente he spent most of his professional career in Spain, mainly with Getafe where ...

(eight months) prompted a loan request by the

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 ...

side, which was accepted. On 14 September, after having received the latter's nº1 jersey, he made his debut for the club, keeping a clean sheet in a 0–0 home draw with

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

. From January 2009 onwards, as Abbondanzieri returned to

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

, Jacobo was reinstated as starter, first appearing on the 25th in a 5–1 home win against

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting (although in an international context this can lead to confusion with Sporting Clube de Portugal) is a Spanish football club from Gijón, P ...

. In 2009–10 he alternated with Paraguayan

Justo Villar Justo Wilmar Villar Viveros (born 30 June 1977) is a Paraguayan former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Other than in his own country, he also played in Argentina, Spain and Chile, in a senior career that lasted 22 years. A ...

when healthy, but Valladolid finished 18th with 62 goals against (the fourth-worst defensive record) and dropped down back to the second division.

Greece

In July 2011, after a failed transfer to

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

– the Scottish team had already shown interest in the player the previous summer– Jacobo joined several compatriots at

Asteras Tripolis F.C. Asteras Tripolis Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Αστέρας Τρίπολης), commonly referred to as Asteras Tripolis (meaning "Star of Tripoli"), is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Tripoli in Arcadia, Peloponnese, G ...

in Greece, signing a two-year contract. On 27 November, he was named ''

Player of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

'' in a 2–0 home defeat of

Olympiacos FC 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 21 April 2012, after the

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

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 pol ...

was over, Jacobo was released by Asteras supposedly to move to Everton in England, and had subsequent trials in the country with

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

and

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

in the ensuing summer. Nothing came of it and, eventually, he stayed in Greece and joined

PAOK FC P.A.O.K. FC ( el, ΠΑΕ ΠΑΟΚ, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινουπολιτών, '' Panthessaloníkios Athlitikós Ómilos Konstadinoupolitón'', "Pan-Thessalonian Sports club, Athlet ...

for one year. On 18 November 2012, Jacobo was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

in a game against

Panathinaikos F.C. Panathinaikos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Παναθηναϊκός Α.Ο. ), known as Panathinaikos, or by its full name, and the name of its parent sports club, Panathinaikos A.O. or PAO (; ''Panathinaïkós Athlitikós Ómilos'', "All-Athenian ...

and, subsequently, was subjected to the club's disciplinary proceedings, being reinstated after issuing an apology. In June of the following year he renewed his contract for three more years but, in November, after a new case of misconduct, this time involving the club's trainer, was again suspended. Coach Huub Stevens commented on the incident: ''“There was an incident in yesterday’s training. Believe me, patience is the best way to deal with such matters, but it was not the first time he overreacted and that is unacceptable. That’s why we banned him from training until Monday. I hope he will reflect on his behaviour and learn from it”.'' Jacobo was loaned to

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1912, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez Lóp ...

back in his country for the 2014–15 campaign. On 14 November, however, he left the club after having a confrontation with teammate Cristo González, also being deemed surplus to requirements at PAOK. On 17 January 2017, after years battling several injury problems, the 33-year-old Jacobo announced his retirement. He expressed a desire to remain connected to the sport as a goalkeeper coach, and started working in that capacity with

Internacional de Madrid CF Internacional de Madrid, simply known as Internacional or Inter de Madrid, is a Spanish football team based in Villaviciosa de Odón, in the Community of Madrid. Founded in 2002, it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, holding home games ...

and

Aarhus Gymnastikforening Aarhus Gymnastikforening (; commonly known as AGF ), is a professional sports club based in Aarhus, Jutland, Denmark. Founded in 1880, it is one of the oldest clubs in the country and gymnastics and fencing are featured as its main sports. Howeve ...

Honours

Valladolid *

: 2006–07 Numancia *Segunda División: 2007–08

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanz, Jacobo 1983 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Valladolid Association football goalkeepers La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Valladolid Promesas players CF Palencia footballers Real Jaén footballers Real Valladolid players CD Numancia players Getafe CF footballers CD Tenerife players Super League Greece players Asteras Tripolis F.C. players PAOK FC players Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Denmark