Javier "Javi" Poves Gómez (born 28 September 1986) 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 le ...

who played as a defender. He quit as a professional after one substitute appearance 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 ...

for

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 ...

, citing reasons of conscience. In 2019 he became president of Móstoles, renaming the club

Flat Earth FC Club de Fútbol Fuenlabrada Promesas Madrid 2021, formerly Flat Earth Fútbol Club, UD Móstoles Balompié and CDC Comercial, is a Spanish football team based in Madrid, in the autonomous community of Madrid. Founded in 1969, it plays in Tercer ...

and endorsing the idea of a flat Earth.

Playing career

Born in

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 ...

, Poves played youth football with hometown clubs

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

and Rayo Vallecano, going on to make his senior debut in amateur football also in the community, with

Rayo Vallecano B Rayo Vallecano de Madrid B is the reserve team of Rayo Vallecano, a Spanish football club based in the Madrid neighbourhood of Vallecas. Founded in 1973 and plays in Tercera Federación – Group 7, holding home matches at ''Ciudad Deportiva Ray ...

, Las Rozas CF and

CDA Navalcarnero Club Deportivo Artístico Navalcarnero is a football team based in Navalcarnero, in the autonomous community of Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1961, it plays in Segunda Federación – Group 1, holding home games at the 2,500-seat ''Estadio Mariano Go ...

. In 2008 he joined

, being assigned to the reserves in the

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

. Poves made his first and only appearance for the

Asturians Asturians ( ast, asturianos) are a Celtic-Romance ethnic group native to the autonomous community of Asturias, in the North-West of the Iberian Peninsula. Culture and society Heritage Asturians are directly descended from the Astures, who wer ...

' first team on 21 May 2011, playing in the goalless

draw at

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 ...

on the final day of the season as a second-half substitute for

David Barral David Barral Torres (born 10 May 1983) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Internacional de Madrid. He achieved La Liga totals of 221 games and 46 goals over eight seasons, with Sporting de Gijón, Levante and Gran ...

. He refused to use a bank account and returned a free car which Sporting had given to each of their players, and retired in August 2011 for reasons of conscience, stating:

Flat Earth

Poves made a return to football on 12 July 2014, signing with Madrid-based

UD San Sebastián de los Reyes Unión Deportiva San Sebastián de los Reyes, also known as Sanse is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in San Sebastián de los Reyes, in the autonomous community of Community of Madrid, Madrid. Founded in 1971 it pla ...

Tercera División Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segunda División'', and the semi-professional ''Segunda Di ...

. Two years later he joined Móstoles Balompié, where he became president and received international attention for renaming the club

before their debut season in the fourth tier in 2019; he publicly endorsed the theory of a Flat Earth. Wishing to break precedents and bring different perspectives to his club, Poves hired former Spain international

Laura del Río Laura del Río García (born 5 February 1982) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a forward. She last managed men's club Flat Earth FC. She used to play for Bristol Academy in England's FA WSL. Prior to that, she ...

as Flat Earth's manager in August 2019; she became the first woman to lead a men's team in the country. After two wins were followed by seven games without a victory, she was dismissed on 29 October and replaced by predecessor Javier de Lucas. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Poves and his club uploaded social media posts against

vaccines A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity The adaptive immune system, also known as the acquired immune system, is a subsystem of the immune system that is composed of specialized, systemic cells and pro ...

and face masks. He announced that he was leaving on 6 December 2020, but two days later said that his words were misinterpreted; he released a long statement including "Perhaps, bearing the burden of being the only club in the world that strives for the liberation of mankind from this enslaving system to which we submit, is on occasion an extra emotional burden that I have to learn to manage". In July 2021, Flat Earth was acquired by

CF Fuenlabrada Club de Fútbol Fuenlabrada, S.A.D. is a football club based in Fuenlabrada, Community of Madrid, Spain, that currently competes in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, the third tier of the Spanish league system. It was founded in 1975. It holds ...

, being renamed CF Fuenlabrada Promesas Madrid 2021.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Poves, Javi 1986 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Rayo Vallecano B players Las Rozas CF players CDA Navalcarnero players Sporting de Gijón B players Sporting de Gijón players UD San Sebastián de los Reyes players Spanish football chairmen and investors Flat Earth proponents Spanish conspiracy theorists