Juan Manuel López Martinez (born 3 September 1969) 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 ...

who played mainly as a

central defender 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 ...

(occasionally he could operate in the flanks). López was prone to

suspensions In chemistry, a suspension is a heterogeneous mixture of a fluid that contains solid particles sufficiently large for sedimentation. The particles may be visible to the naked eye, usually must be larger than one micrometer, and will eventually ...

, often being considered overaggressive in his approach.Juanma López, el Súper defensa (Juanma López, Super defender)
at La Roja en el Olimpo (in Spanish) Having spent his entire career with Atlético Madrid, he retired after sustaining a serious knee injury.

Club career

López was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

. During his professional career he played solely for Atlético Madrid, his debut with the first team coming in the dying stages of

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

as he was still registered for the reserves, and would be the following season. During the 1995–96 campaign, López, often dubbed ''Super López'', formed a solid centre-back partnership with another Atlético graduate, Roberto Solozábal, as the capital club achieved an historic

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

, with the former appearing in 32

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' ...

matches with two goals, in home wins against Real Oviedo (3–0) and

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1912, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez Lóp ...

(3–1). From 1997 to 2001 (with the last season being played in the Segunda División), however, consistent injuries limited the often considered over-aggressive player to just 12 games, and he eventually retired due to an

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and th ...

ailment from which he never fully recovered. López subsequently worked as a football agent.

International career

For

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, López won the gold medal in the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

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 ...

, and participated at

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

, receiving 11 full

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

in a five-year span. His senior debut came on 9 September 1992 in a friendly 1–0 win against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Santander Santander may refer to: Places * Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain * Santander Department, a department of Colombia * Santander State, former state of Colombia * Santander de Quilichao, a m ...

, also the first for coach

Javier Clemente Javier Clemente Lázaro (; born 12 March 1950) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Forced to retire from playing in his early 20s through injury, he embarked on a coaching career with his first managerial ...

– both López and Solozábal played the entire match.

Honours

Atlético Madrid *

: 1995–96 *

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 ...

: 1991–92, 1995–96 Spain U23 * Summer Olympic Games: 1992

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Juanma 1969 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Atlético Madrid B players Atlético Madrid footballers Spain men's under-23 international footballers Spain men's international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players Olympic footballers for Spain Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Spain Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics Association football agents

Club career

International career

Honours

See also

References

External links