Luis Helguera Bujía (born 9 June 1976) 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

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Playing career

Helguera was born in Ferrol, Galicia, his mother's hometown, but spent his entire upbringing in

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 ...

Cantabria Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...

, where he played in the youth system at

Racing Club Racing Club may refer to: Football * Racing Club Abidjan, Ivory Coast * K.R.C. Genk, Belgium * Racing Club Bafoussam, Cameroon * Racing Club Beirut, Lebanon * Racing Club de Avellaneda, Argentina * Racing Club Haïtien, Haiti * Racing Club Port ...

. After beginning his senior career with lowly

CD Manchego Club Deportivo Manchego was a Spanish football team based in Ciudad Real in the namesake province, in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. Founded in 1929 and dissolved in 2000, Its successor was Manchego CF and later CD Ciudad Real ...

he moved to

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

, where he featured mostly for the reserves and appeared sporadically in

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 ...

over three seasons (his most games being 16 in 1999–2000, 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 ...

side finished fourth). After his older brother, Iván, had played one season at

AS Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

, Helguera also moved to Italy, representing

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Football in Italy, Italian association football, football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a ...

for two years with a

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually abbreviated to Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the ...

loan in between. He spent a further five campaigns in that country, mostly in

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

and latterly for

Vicenza Calcio L.R. Vicenza, commonly referred to as Vicenza, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Vicenza, Veneto. Founded in 1902 as Associazione del Calcio in Vicenza, they became Lanerossi Vicenza in 1953, then Vicenza Calcio from 1990 ...

, returning in 2008 to his homeland to sign for

SD Huesca Sociedad Deportiva Huesca, S.A.D., is a Spanish football club in Huesca, in the autonomous community of Aragon. Founded on 29 March 1960, SD Huesca plays in the Segunda División, having played in the Spanish top division for the first time in t ...

, newcomers 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 ...

. Helguera rarely missed a game for the club during his spell, helping them to retain their second-tier status for four years. In

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

he also collected a 20

yellow cards Yellow card may refer to: * Yellow card (sport), shown in many sports after a rules infraction or, by analogy, a serious warning in other areas * Yellowcard, an American alternative rock band * Yellow Card Scheme, a United Kingdom initiative conce ...

in 37 matches, the highest total in the division. He retired in June 2013 at the age of 37 following

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

, amassing totals of 185 appearances and eight goals over the course of five seasons.

Post-retirement

After retiring, Helguera was hired as Huesca's

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

. In October 2013, he was added to

David Amaral David Gil Amaral is a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Davis, United States, and since 1998 has been the research director at the M.I.N.D. Institute, an affiliate of UC Davis, engaged in interdisciplinary research into ...

's staff as an assistant coach, while also acting as match delegate. He stepped down from that role the following March after the manager was dismissed, but remained at the club in other capacities. On 6 August 2015, Helguera was named

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Las Palmas, on the island of Gran Canaria in the autonomous community of Canary Islands. Founded on 22 August 1949, it plays in Segunda División, holding home games at the ...

' technical secretary. He resigned from the position in April 2018, following their top-flight relegation. Helguera joined

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 ...

in a similar role on 21 May 2018. Roughly one year later, he left the

Estadi Ciutat de València Estadi Ciutat de València (; es, Estadio Ciudad de Valencia ; en, City of Valencia Stadium) is a football stadium in Valencia and is the home ground of Levante UD. Built in 1969 and holding up to 26,354 spectators, it is the 23rd-largest stadiu ...

. On 2 March 2020, Helguera returned to Las Palmas, this time as

sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

; he signed a contract until June 2023.

Personal life

Helguera was the younger brother of former

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

and

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 ...

defender

Iván Helguera Iván Helguera Bujía (; born 28 March 1975) is a Spanish former professional footballer. Playing as either a central defender or defensive midfielder, with both good defensive and offensive skills, he represented five clubs during his professi ...

. Both played abroad in Italy.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Helguera, Luis 1976 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Ferrol, Spain Footballers from Santander, Spain Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Deportivo Aragón players Real Zaragoza players Deportivo Alavés players SD Huesca footballers Serie A players Serie B players Udinese Calcio players ACF Fiorentina players AC Ancona players LR Vicenza players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Italy