Héctor Junior Firpo Adames (born 22 August 1996), known as Junior Firpo or simply Junior, is a 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 plays as a defender for club

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

. Mainly a

left-back 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 can also play as a centre-back or

right-back 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 ...

Club career

Real Betis

Firpo was born in

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

and moved to Benalmádena, Málaga,

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 ...

at the age of six and joined

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 ...

' youth setup in June 2014, aged 18, from Puerto Malagueño. He made his senior debut with the reserves on 15 February 2015, starting in a 1–1 home draw against Granada B in the Segunda División B. Definitely promoted to the B-side ahead of the 2015–16 season, Junior appeared regularly during the season, which ended in relegation. On 17 April 2016 he scored his first senior goal, netting the third in a 4–0 away win over

Algeciras Algeciras ( , ) is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. Located in the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, near the Strait of Gibraltar, it is the largest city on the Bay of Gibraltar ( es, Bahía de Algeci ...

.. On 1 August 2017, after spending the whole pre-season with the main squad, Junior renewed his contract until 2021. He made his first team – and

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' ...

– debut the following 12 February, starting in a 1–0 away defeat of

Deportivo La Coruña ''Deportivo'' (Spanish, 'sporting') may refer to: * Deportivo de La Coruña, commonly known as simply Deportivo, a Spanish football club * Déportivo, a French rock band * Deportivo (Mexicable) Mexicable is a aerial lift line in Ecatepec de Mo ...

, becoming the first Dominican Republic-born player to have ever featured in La Liga. Junior scored his first professional goal on 17 March 2018, netting the first in a 3–0 home win against

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

. On 19 August, after being promoted to the main squad, he agreed to a contract extension until 2023.

Barcelona

On 4 August 2019, Junior signed a five-year deal with

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

for €18 million plus €12 million in add-ons. He made his debut three weeks later in a 5–2 home win over his former club Betis, playing the last nine minutes in place of Rafinha. On 28 September, Junior scored his first goal for Barcelona and the second goal against

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 ...

in a 2–0 win. On 27 November, he made his

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 ...

debut in a 3–1

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

victory over

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 ...

. On 13 February 2021, Firpo scored his second (and last) goal for Barça in a 5–1 home win over Alavés.

Leeds United

On 6 July 2021, Firpo signed a four-year deal with

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 ...

club

for a fee of €15 million plus add-ons, with Barcelona reserving rights to 20% of his future sales. He was expected to replace Ezgjan Alioski at the left back role after Alioski's contract expired, and made his debut for the club in that position on 14 August in the second half of the season opener at Old Trafford, where he came on as a tactical substitute for

Rodrigo Rodrigo is a Spanish, Portuguese and Italian name derived from the Germanic name '' Roderick'' (Gothic ''*Hroþareiks'', via Latinized ''Rodericus'' or ''Rudericus''), given specifically in reference to either King Roderic (d. 712), the last Vi ...

in a 5–1 loss. He scored his first goal for the club in Leeds’ 3–1 win in the FA Cup fourth round at the

Wham Stadium The Crown Ground is a multi-use stadium in Accrington, Lancashire, England. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of Accrington Stanley. Opened in 1968, the stadium has a capacity of 5,450. The ground is cur ...

over

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete his ...

on 28 January 2023. On 25 February 2023, Firpo scored his first Premier League goal, and the first goal of new manager

Javi Gracia Javier "Javi" Gracia Carlos (; born 1 May 1970) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a defensive midfielder. He played 430 matches both major levels of Spanish football combined, in a 15-year professional career. Afte ...

’s reign in a 1–0 win against

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

at Elland Road.

International career

Despite being born in the

, he has spent the majority of his life in Spain and continues to hold citizenship for both countries. On 9 October 2015, he played the entire second half of a 0–6 non-FIFA friendly loss for the Dominican Republic senior national team against the Brazil Olympic team. On 31 August 2018, Junior was called up to the Spain under-21 team for two 2019 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying matches against

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. He made his debut on 7 September, starting in a 3–0 win against the former.

Career statistics

Honours

Barcelona *

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Spain U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Leeds United F.C. website *

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Firpo, Junior 1996 births Living people Sportspeople from Santo Domingo Dominican Republic emigrants to Spain Naturalised citizens of Spain Dominican Republic men's footballers Spanish men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks La Liga players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Premier League players Betis Deportivo Balompié footballers Real Betis players FC Barcelona players Leeds United F.C. players Spain men's under-21 international footballers Dominican Republic men's international footballers People from Torremolinos Footballers from the Province of Málaga Spanish expatriates in England Dominican Republic expatriates in England Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England