José Ignacio Sáenz Marín (born 28 September 1973), known as José Ignacio, 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 defensive midfielder.

Club career

Born in Logroño, La Rioja, José Ignacio made his professional debut for hometown club

CD Logroñés Club Deportivo Logroñés, S.A.D. was a Spanish football team based in Logroño, in the autonomous community of La Rioja. Founded in 1940, it last played in ''Regional Preferente de La Rioja''. Due to financial problems, since 2009 the club has ...

. Upon its La Liga relegation at the end of the 1994–95 season he signed for Valencia CF, helping with 27 matches to a final runner-up place in his first year. In the summer of 1997, José Ignacio moved to Real Zaragoza, where he would spend five seasons. In the 2000–01 campaign he scored a career-best six goals, including one in a 14 April 2001

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

at FC Barcelona that finished 4–4 as 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 went on to barely avoid relegation (17th, adding that year's Copa del Rey), which would eventually befall the next year. José Ignacio joined

RC Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), ...

for 2002–03, making 33 league appearances as the Galician side qualified for the UEFA Champions League; in that tournament, he closed the 2–1 away win over AC Milan on 9 December 2003 to qualify his team for the knockout stages alongside the Italians. However, they would also be relegated to

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 ...

on the domestic front. Upon retiring in 2006 aged 33,

one year ''One Year'' is the debut solo studio album by English singer-songwriter Colin Blunstone, a member of the Zombies. It was released by Epic Records in 1971. It includes "Say You Don't Mind", which peaked at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart. Prod ...

after playing only 11 games as Celta returned to the top tier, José Ignacio rejoined his first club Logroñés as a director of football. Over 11 top-flight seasons, he amassed totals of 317 matches and 17 goals.

International career

José Ignacio earned two caps for Spain in 2001. The first came in the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

qualifiers against Liechtenstein on 5 September, and he also appeared in a

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

in Huelva with Mexico two months later. Previously, José Ignacio represented the nation at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Honours

Zaragoza * Copa del Rey: 2000–01 Spain U21 * UEFA European Under-21 Championship runner-up:

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

References

External links

*
Celta de Vigo biography
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ignacio, Jose 1973 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Logroño Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players CD Logroñés footballers Valencia CF players Real Zaragoza players RC Celta de Vigo players Logroñés CF footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spain men's under-23 international footballers Spain men's international footballers Olympic footballers for Spain Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics