Jesús Ángel Solana Bermejo (born 25 December 1964) is a Spanish former professional footballer. A defender, he was equally at ease as a left-back or a central defender. He played 361 La Liga games over the course of 15 seasons, representing

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 ...

(six years) and Zaragoza (nine).

Club career

Born in Arnedo, La Rioja, Solana was a product of

's youth academy. He was used regularly in five of his six seasons with the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

club's first team, as they won five La Liga titles in a row. However, Solana would be most known for his spell at Real Zaragoza, where he added one Copa del Rey to his trophy cabinet as well as the memorable 1994–95 edition of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, appearing in more than 300 overall official matches for the

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

ese. Having retired in 2000 at nearly 36, he had a three-year coaching spell with the side's reserves, then returned late into the 2012–13 campaign to prevent relegation from

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 ...

, which eventually did not happen.

International career

Solana won one cap for Spain, coming on as a substitute for

Quique Sánchez Flores Enrique "Quique" Sánchez Flores (; born 5 February 1965) is a Spanish former footballer who played as a right-back, currently manager of Getafe. He began his professional career with Valencia in 1984, going on to amass La Liga totals of ...

– who would later be his teammate at Zaragoza – in the 83rd minute of a

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being Me ...

qualifier against the Republic of Ireland, on 16 November 1988.

Honours

Real Madrid * La Liga: 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1989–90 * Copa del Rey: 1988–89 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, 1989,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

* UEFA Cup: 1985–86 Zaragoza *Copa del Rey: 1993–94 * UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1994–95 Spain U21 * UEFA European Under-21 Championship:

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Solana, Jesus 1964 births Living people People from Arnedo Spanish footballers Footballers from La Rioja (Spain) Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players Real Zaragoza players UEFA Cup winning players Spain youth international footballers Spain under-21 international footballers Spain under-23 international footballers Spain international footballers Spanish football managers Segunda División B managers