Francisco Javier "Javi" García Fernández (; born 8 February 1987) is a Spanish 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 ...
who is an assistant manager for
Benfica. 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 ...
by nature, he could also appear 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 started his career with
Real Madrid, but represented mostly the
reserve team
In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...
, going on to have a three-year spell with Benfica in Portugal. In 2012 he signed with
Manchester City, then spent a further three seasons in the
Russian Premier League
The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...
with
Zenit
Zenit, meaning "zenith", may refer to:
Spaceflight and rocketry
* Zenit (rocket family), a Soviet family of space launch vehicles
* Zenit (satellite), a type of Soviet spy satellite
* Zenit sounding rocket, a Swiss rocket
Sports
* Zenit (sports ...
where he appeared in 108 matches across all competitions. He returned to Spain with
Betis in 2017 and retired at
Boavista.
García represented
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
at
various youth levels, including the victorious
under-19s at the
2006 European Championship, and made his senior international debut in 2012.
Club career
Real Madrid
A product of
Real Madrid's youth system, García was born in
Mula,
Region of Murcia
The Region of Murcia (, ; es, Región de Murcia ), is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain located in the southeastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast. The region is in ...
, and played three
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' ...
matches for the first team while still
a junior, making his debut at age 17 in a 5–0 home win against
Levante UD on 28 November 2004. After that, he would spend the entire
2005–06 season with
the reserves in
Segunda División.
The summer of 2006 was a very busy one for García: first, he
won the
UEFA European Championship
The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...
with the
under-19s, impressing first-team head coach
Fabio Capello who recalled him to training sessions. He played most of Real's pre-season games, including a starting line-up spot in both
Ramón de Carranza Trophy
The Ramón de Carranza Trophy ( es, Trofeo Ramón de Carranza) is a pre-season football tournament organised by Cádiz City Hall, in memory of its former mayor, Ramón de Carranza – after whom the Cádiz F.C. stadium used to be named as well ...
fixtures, being deployed in central midfield alongside new purchase
Emerson; however, he failed to appear for the main squad
in official matches.
In August 2007, in
the campaign of García's supposed definitive promotion to the first team, head coach
Bernd Schuster
Bernd Schuster (born 22 December 1959) is a German former professional footballer of the late 1970s through early 1990s, who won club titles playing for the Spanish sides FC Barcelona (1980–1987) and Real Madrid (1988–1990). He played as a m ...
would eventually prevent that golden opportunity – as fellow ''
cantera
Cantera, literally meaning "quarry" in Spanish, is a term used in Spain to refer to youth academies and farm teams organized by sports clubs. It is also used to refer to the geographical area that clubs recruit players from. The term is widely u ...
'' players
Rubén de la Red and
Esteban Granero
Esteban Félix Granero Molina (; born 2 July 1987) is a Spanish former professional footballer. Known as ''El Pirata'' ("The Pirate"), he could play as a central or an attacking midfielder.
He emerged through Real Madrid's youth academy, but ma ...
also left – and offers began to appear from clubs in the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
, including
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
, and domestic teams such as
Atlético Madrid and
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 – ...
. García would finally settle for
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 ...
on 31 August, signing for four seasons for a €2.5 million transfer fee as the
Navarre side was keen to replace injury-struck midfielder
Javad Nekounam
Javad Nekounam ( fa, جواد نکونام; born 7 September 1980) is an Iranian retired professional footballer who played as a central midfielder and is the current manager of Foolad FC.
He spent most of his professional career with Pas and S ...
(out of action for several months); having first appeared in a 1–1 home draw to
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 ...
, where he played one minute, he scored twice in his first six matches, in victories over Levante (4–1) and
Villarreal CF
Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or simply Villarreal, is a professional football club based in Villarreal, in the Castellón province of eastern Spain, ...
(3–2).
García's contract included a buy-back clause that could see him return to Real Madrid for €4 million. On 29 April 2008, Osasuna officially reported that the former had exercised their purchase option, and the player returned to the
Santiago Bernabéu for
2008–09; he made his first league appearance for Real in his second spell during the 7–1 thrashing of
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, ...
on 24 September, coming on as a second-half
substitute for
Mahamadou Diarra
Mahamadou Diarra (born 18 May 1981) is a Malian former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He served as captain for the Mali national team.
Club career OFI Crete
Diarra started his professional career at Greek clu ...
.
Benfica
![Javi Garcia and Tiago Pinto](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Javi_Garcia_and_Tiago_Pinto.jpg)
Deemed surplus to requirements at Real Madrid, García signed for
S.L. Benfica
Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football.
Founded on 28 February 1904 as ''Sport Lisboa'', Be ...
in Portugal on 21 July 2009 on a five-year contract for a €7 million transfer fee. An undisputed starter throughout
his first season he also scored three goals, most notably through a header in
the last minute for the game's only goal against
Associação Naval 1º de Maio at home, as the club clung onto the top position on 9 November and eventually won the
Primeira Liga.
García made 43 competitive appearances in
2011–12. His two goals of the campaign came against
Sporting CP
Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...
in the
Lisbon derby 1–0 home win, and at
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
in
the quarter-finals of 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 ...
– in the latter, he netted off a
corner kick
A corner kick is the method of restarting play in a game of association football when the ball goes out of play over the goal line, without a goal being scored and having last been touched by a member of the defending team. The kick is take ...
in the 85th minute to make it 1–1, but ten-men Benfica eventually lost 1–2 and 1–3 on aggregate.
Manchester City
On 31 August 2012, García joined
Manchester City for £15.8 million. He made his
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
debut on 15 September in a 1–1 away draw to
Stoke City, scoring with a header from a
Carlos Tevez
Carlos Alberto Tevez (; born 5 February 1984) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player. A quick, tenacious, powerful, hard-working and dynamic forward in his prime, Tevez was capable of playing as a striker, as a wing ...
free-kick.
After picking up a
thigh
In human anatomy, the thigh is the area between the hip ( pelvis) and the knee. Anatomically, it is part of the lower limb.
The single bone in the thigh is called the femur. This bone is very thick and strong (due to the high proportion of ...
injury in the early minutes of the
Champions League group stage fixture against
Borussia Dortmund
Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...
, García missed several weeks of action. He made his return against
West Ham United
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...
, replacing Tevez in the 84th minute of a 0–0 draw at
Upton Park. On 15 December, he started in a 3–1 victory at
Newcastle United and scored his side's second goal.
Zenit Saint Petersburg
On 13 August 2014,
FC Zenit Saint Petersburg announced the £13 million signing of García after he passed the medical and agreed to personal terms. He scored his first goal for his new team 18 days later, the only in an away win over
FC Lokomotiv Moscow
FC Lokomotiv Moscow (''FC Lokomotiv Moskva'', russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб "Локомотив" Москва, ) is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow. Lokomotiv have won the Russian Premier League on three o ...
in the
Russian Premier League
The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...
.
García played 24 matches in the
2014–15 season, scoring three times as the side won the fifth national championship in their history (fourth under the tournament's new denomination).
Betis
On 14 August 2017, the 30-year-old García returned to Spain after eight years to join
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 ...
. He appeared in 64 total games for the team from the
Estadio Benito Villamarín over three seasons, scoring once in a 3–1 away win against
Deportivo Alavés
Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually abbreviated to Alavés, is a Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Founded on 1 July 1920 as Sport Friends Club, it ...
on 12 March 2018 and being
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 ...
the following 10 February in a 3–0 loss at
CD Leganés.
García signed a new two-year contract with the
Andalusia
Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The t ...
ns on 5 July 2019.
Boavista
After mutually terminating his contract with Betis, García went back to Portugal's top flight by joining
Boavista F.C. on a three-year deal on 19 August 2020. He scored his first goal for the team on 25 October in a 2–2 draw at
F.C. Famalicão, in which he was sent off.
On 22 June 2022, 35-year-old García retired. Remaining in Portugal, he immediately went back to Benfica and joined the staff of new manager
Roger Schmidt.
International career
García represented the
Spain national under-21 team at the
2009 UEFA European Championship, appearing against
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
(2–0 loss) in an eventual group stage exit. He earned his first
cap
A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...
for the
full side on 26 May 2012, playing 22 minutes in a 2–0
friendly win over
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...
in
St. Gallen
, neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach
, twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic)
, website = ...
.
Career statistics
Club
Honours
Real Madrid B
*
Segunda División B:
2004–05
Real Madrid
*
Supercopa de España:
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
Benfica
*
Primeira Liga:
2009–10
*
Taça da Liga:
2009–10,
2010–11
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...
,
2011–12[
Manchester City
*]Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
: 2013–14
* Football League Cup: 2013–14
*FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
runner-up: 2012–13
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
Zenit Saint Petersburg
*Russian Premier League
The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...
: 2014–15
* Russian Cup: 2015–16[
*]Russian Super Cup
The Russian Super Cup () is a one-match football annual competition. Its official sponsored name is ''OLIMPBET Russian Supercup'' (). The two participating clubs are the Russian Premier League champions and the Russian Cup winners. If the Premie ...
: 2015, 2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...
[
Spain U19
*]UEFA European Under-19 Championship
The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply UEFA Under-19 Championship or the UEFA Euro U-19, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the member associations of UEFA.
Spain and England ...
: 2006
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Javi
1987 births
Living people
People from Río Mula
Spanish footballers
Footballers from the Region of Murcia
Association football defenders
Association football midfielders
Association football utility players
La Liga players
Segunda División players
Segunda División B players
Real Madrid Castilla footballers
Real Madrid CF players
CA Osasuna players
Real Betis players
Primeira Liga players
S.L. Benfica footballers
Boavista F.C. players
Premier League players
Manchester City F.C. players
Russian Premier League players
FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players
Spain youth international footballers
Spain under-21 international footballers
Spain international footballers
Spanish expatriate footballers
Expatriate footballers in Portugal
Expatriate footballers in England
Expatriate footballers in Russia
Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Portugal
Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England
Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Russia
S.L. Benfica non-playing staff