Enrique "Kike" Sola Clemente (; born 25 February 1986) 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 striker. During a 13-year professional career, he amassed

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 ...

totals of 106 matches and 22 goals over nine seasons, representing

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El ...

and

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

in the competition.

Club career

Osasuna

Sola was born in

Cascante Cascante is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain. During the Roman period, Cascante was known as Cascantum. Notable people * Kike Sola, footballer * Álex Remiro, footballer * Luci ...

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

. A product of

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El Sa ...

's youth system, he made his first-team and

debut on 9 June 2007, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 5–0 away win against

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 ...

and scoring twice. On 16 July 2009, after having appeared rarely in the previous two seasons (also struggling with injuries and loss of form), Sola moved 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 ...

CD Numancia Club Deportivo Numancia de Soria, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club in Soria, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 April 1945, it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding home games at ''Nuevo Estadio Los ...

on a

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 ...

-long loan, as part of a deal that saw Carlos Aranda move in the opposite direction, permanently. On 18 January of the following year, after a negative experience – even when healthy, he did not make the list of 18 on several occasions – he terminated his contract with the

Soria Soria () is a municipality and a Spanish city, located on the Douro river in the east of the autonomous community of Castile and León and capital of the province of Soria. Its population is 38,881 (INE, 2017), 43.7% of the provincial population. ...

club and moved abroad, joining

Levadiakos F.C. Levadiakos Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Λεβαδειακός) is a Greek professional Association football, football club that plays in the Super League Greece. Based in Livadeia, Greece, the club was promoted to the Super League Greece, Alpha Et ...

from

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

until June. For the 2010–11 campaign, Sola was initially only fourth-choice behind Aranda,

Walter Pandiani Walter Gerardo Pandiani Urquiza (born 27 April 1976) is an Uruguayan football manager and former player who played as a striker. He is the current manager of Albion. His performances for Peñarol earned him a move to Deportivo in Spain, wh ...

and newly signed

Dejan Lekić Dejan Lekić (Serbian Cyrillic: Дејан Лекић; born 7 June 1985) is a Serbian footballer who plays for Spanish club Las Rozas CF as a striker. Career After appearing for Metalac Kraljevo and Zemun, Lekić joined Red Star Belgrade in ...

, only starting to receive significant playing time after injuries to the first two. On 13 March 2011, in one of his first starts, he netted in a 3–1 home win against

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system ...

, and added another in the following matchday, scoring from a backheel in a 4–0 win at

Hércules CF Hércules de Alicante Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a Spanish football team in Alicante, in the autonomous community of Valencian Community. Founded on 25 October 1922, it currently plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 3 and plays its hom ...

. Osasuna eventually escaped relegation, and Sola finished as the team's top scorer even though he featured in less than half of the matches. On 11 May 2011 he helped with a brace to a 3–2 home win against

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA Euro ...

, after his side trailed 0–2 at

half-time In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...

. Sola only played in seven scoreless games in 2011–12, being troubled by

tendinitis Tendinopathy, a type of tendon disorder that results in pain, swelling, and impaired function. The pain is typically worse with movement. It most commonly occurs around the shoulder (rotator cuff tendinitis, biceps tendinitis), elbow (tennis elb ...

problems for several months and eventually undergoing surgery in early March 2012, being sidelined until June. On 25 February 2013, the day of his 27th birthday, he played just 20 minutes after coming from the bench away against

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. (, ca-valencia, Llevant Unió Esportiva ) is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 9 September 1909, Levante ...

, but netted the second goal in an eventual 2–0 triumph for his seventh of the season. On 31 March 2013, Sola helped with a brace as Osasuna came from behind to win it 3–1 over

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club colo ...

at the

Estadio José Zorrilla Estadio José Zorrilla () is a municipally-owned football stadium in Valladolid, Spain. The capacity of the stadium is 26,451 seats, making it the 22nd-largest stadium in Spain and the largest in Castile and León. History The stadium was built ...

Athletic Bilbao

In summer 2013, Sola joined

on a five-year contract with a

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

30 million buyout clause – he had already played youth football with the club, from ages 12–17. After spending four months recovering from injury he scored his first goal on 26 January 2014, closing the scoresheet in a 5–1 away win over former side Osasuna. Sola played sparingly for the ''Lions'', remaining an unused substitute as they lost the 2015 final of the

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 footbal ...

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

. Against the same opponent, in that year's

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 ...

, he came in the 80th minute of the second leg at the

Camp Nou Camp Nou (, meaning ''new field'', often referred to in English as the Nou Camp), officially branded as Spotify Camp Nou for sponsorship and financial reasons, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It has been the home stadium of FC Barcelo ...

and, within seven minutes was given a

red card A red card is a type of penalty card that is shown in many sports after a rules infraction. Red card may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Red Card'' (album), 1976 release by Streetwalkers * Red card, suit (cards) of hearts or d ...

for a foul on

Javier Mascherano Javier Alejandro Mascherano (born 8 June 1984) is an Argentine professional football coach and former player who is the head coach of the Argentina national under-20 team. As a player, he played as a centre-back or defensive midfielder, most not ...

; his team nonetheless won 5–1 on aggregate for his first major honour. In December 2015, Sola scored in each leg of Athletic's 8–0 aggregate win over

Real Balompédica Linense Real Balompédica Linense is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in La Línea de la Concepción, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1912 it plays in Primera División RFEF, Primera División RFEF – ...

in the domestic cup. The following 15 January he moved abroad for a second time, joining English

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

leaders

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

on a temporary basis until the end of the campaign and teaming up with several compatriots at the club, among them manager

Aitor Karanka Aitor Karanka de la Hoz (Basque and ; born 18 September 1973) is a Spanish football manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of Segunda División club Granada. Save for a brief spell in the United States at age 32, Karanka ...

. His first appearance occurred on 6 February, as he started and played the first half of the 1–1 home draw against

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

. On 31 August 2016, Sola joined

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol (), or simply Getafe, is a professional football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. The team competes in La Liga, the highest tier of the Spanish football system. The club's home stadium (owned and op ...

on a season-long loan. However, late into the following

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer win ...

, that deal was cancelled and he moved to fellow second division side Numancia in another temporary deal. During his four-year spell at the San Mamés Stadium, Sola was rarely used. On 1 June 2018, citing a "lack of motivation", the 32-year-old retired from football.

International career

Sola won his first and only

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

in the Spain under-21 team on 25 March 2008, playing the second half of the 5–0 home defeat of

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

for the 2009 UEFA European Championship qualifiers after replacing

Bojan Krkić Bojan Krkić Pérez (; sr-Cyrl, Бојан Кркић Перез, ; born 28 August 1990), also known as simply Bojan, is a Spanish professional footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different t ...

Honours

Athletic Bilbao *

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sola, Kike 1986 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Navarre Association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players CA Osasuna B players CA Osasuna players CD Numancia players Athletic Bilbao footballers Getafe CF footballers Super League Greece players Levadiakos F.C. players English Football League players Middlesbrough F.C. players Spain under-21 international footballers Basque Country international footballers Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in England Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England