Juan Carlos Paniagua Prieto (born 20 March 1966) is a Spanish retired

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

, and later worked as a coach.

Career

Paniagua was born in

Navalmoral de la Mata Navalmoral de la Mata is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain located in the province of Cáceres, autonomous community of Extremadura. Attached to the traditional ''comarca'' of Campo Arañuelo, the municipality lies on central-wester ...

in the

province of Cáceres The province of Cáceres ( ; es, provincia de Cáceres, ) is a province of western Spain, and makes up the northern half of the autonomous community of Extremadura. Its capital is the city of Cáceres. Other cities in the province include Pla ...

Extremadura Extremadura (; ext, Estremaúra; pt, Estremadura; Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is an autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, it ...

, and began his career with local side Moralo. He made his debut for the club's B team in 1981, and stayed with the club until 1988, when he joined fellow

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 ...

team Cacereño. After a single season with Cacereño, he signed for

in 1989, helping the club win their Tercera División group and earn promotion in his first season. He made his

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 ...

debut for the club on 2 September 1990 in a 2–0 away loss to Mérida at

Estadio Romano Estadio Romano (''English'': Roman Stadium) is a multi-use stadium in Mérida, Spain. It is currently used for football matches and is the home ground of Mérida AD. The stadium holds 14,600 people and opened in 1954. On 9 September 2009, the s ...

. He had a strong

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, scoring eleven goals, the first of which came in his second match, a 1–1 home draw with

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

on 9 September. However, he left the club that summer to join Toledo, with whom he repeated the feat of winning a Tercera División group and promotion in 1991–92. They earned a second consecutive promotion, via the

play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, the following season, allowing Paniagua to make his

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 ...

debut on 5 September 1993. He replaced Quique for the last 35 minutes of a 2–0 away loss to

Badajoz Badajoz (; formerly written ''Badajos'' in English) is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana. The population ...

. He scored fifteen goals that season, opening his account with a brace in a 5–0 home win over

Real Murcia Real Murcia Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., commonly known as Real Murcia (, "Royal Murcia"), is a Spanish football club based in Murcia, in the Región de Murcia. Founded in 1919, it currently plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, playing ho ...

Estadio Salto del Caballo The Estadio Salto del Caballo is a multi-use stadium located in Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It is currently used for football matches and is the home stadium of CD Toledo Club Deportivo Toledo, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based i ...

in his second match. His good form earned him a move to newly promoted

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 ...

side Compostela ahead of the 1994–95 season, and he made his top flight debut on 9 October. He played the first 66 minutes of a 2–1 away win over

Celta 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) ...

Balaídos The Estadio Municipal de Balaídos (), known as Abanca-Balaídos for sponsorship reasons, is an all-seater stadium located in Vigo, Spain. It is owned by the Vigo's city council, and is the home of La Liga club Celta Vigo. The stadium opened on ...

before being replaced by

Pichi Lucas Argimiro Pérez García (born 14 March 1959), commonly known as Pichi Lucas, is a Spanish former Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker, currently a Manager (association football), manager. ...

. He failed to score that season, having to wait until 4 February 1996 for his first top division goal, which came during a substitute appearance in a 2–0 away win over Mérida. Paniagua left Compostela to join

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city gr ...

in the Segunda División ahead of the 1996–97 season, at the end of which they were relegated. He spent the first half of the following season with Levante, who ultimately met the same fate as Almería the year before, and then joined

Cultural Leonesa Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa (), better known as Cultural Leonesa or La Cultural, is a Spanish football team based in León, in the autonomous community of Castile and Leon. Founded on 5 August 1923, it currently plays in Primera División RF ...

in the tier below in the January transfer window. After another half-season, he returned to Cacereño for another two years, suffering relegation from Segunda División B in 1999–2000. He rounded at his career with a single season at Villanovense in the Tercera División, before retiring in 2001 at the age of 35.

Coaching career

In 2009, Paniagua returned to Cacereño, who he had represented twice during his playing career, as assistant manager during Ángel Luis Alcázar's brief spell as head coach.

Personal life

Paniagua's son, Juan Francisco, also played as a forward, and also represented Cacereño, for whom he played during their 2013–14 Segunda División B campaign.

Honours

Extremadura *

: 1989–90 Toledo *

: 1991–92

Career statistics

:1. Appearances in the 1993 Segunda División B play-offs :2. Appearances in the 1993–94 Segunda División promotion play-off :3. Appearances in the 1998 Segunda División B play-offs

References

External links

* *
Juan Carlos Paniagua Prieto
at Instagram {{DEFAULTSORT:Paniagua, Juan Carlos 1966 births Living people Sportspeople from the Province of Cáceres Spanish footballers Footballers from Extremadura Association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol players Moralo CP players CP Cacereño players CF Extremadura footballers CD Toledo players SD Compostela footballers UD Almería players Levante UD footballers CF Villanovense players Association football coaches