Marc Roca Junqué (born 26 November 1996) is a Spanish 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 le ...

who plays as a defensive midfielder for La Liga club Real Betis, on loan from club Leeds United. He started his career at

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 ...

, appearing in 121 competitive matches and four La Liga seasons. In October 2020, he signed with

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. Roca won the 2019 European Under-21 Championship with Spain.

Club career

Espanyol

Born in

Vilafranca del Penedès Vilafranca del Penedès, or simply Vilafranca (), is the capital of the ''comarca'' of the Alt Penedès in Catalonia, Spain. The Spanish spelling of the name, ''Villafranca del Panadés'', is no longer in official use since 1982 (Law 12/1982, of ...

, Barcelona, Catalonia, Roca joined RCD Espanyol's youth setup in 2008, aged 11. He started his career at

, appearing in 121 competitive matches and four La Liga seasons. On 24 August 2014, he made his senior debut with the reserves, starting in a 2–2

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 ...

home draw against Lleida Esportiu. Roca scored his first senior goal on 17 January 2015, his team's second in a 2–3 home loss to UE Olot. On 4 August he renewed his contract until 2017, and was promoted to the B side shortly after. On 26 August 2016, Roca made his first-team – and La Liga – debut, starting in a 2–2 home draw against

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a association football, football club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, that competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, ...

. On 11 November, he agreed to an extension until 2022 and was permanently promoted to the main squad the following season. Roca scored his first goal in the top flight on 21 April 2019, in a 2–2 draw at

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 ...

. He played 44 matches across all competitions in the 2019–20 campaign, but the club was relegated 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 ...

for the first time in 26 years.

Bayern Munich

On 4 October 2020, Roca signed for

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which play ...

on a five-year contract. He made his official debut 11 days later, in a 3–0 defeat of amateurs 1. FC Düren in the first round of the DFB-Pokal. He appeared in his first Bundesliga match later that month, coming on as an injury-time substitute for

Serge Gnabry Serge may refer to: *Serge (fabric), a type of twill fabric *Serge (llama) (born 2005), a llama in the Cirque Franco-Italien and internet meme *Serge (name), a masculine given name (includes a list of people with this name) *Serge (post), a hitchi ...

in the 2–1 away victory over

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., commonly known as simply FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English, is a German professional football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 as a merger of the clubs ''Kölner Ballspi ...

. Roca played his first-ever game in the UEFA Champions League on 25 November 2020, starting and being sent off for two bookable offences midway through the second half on an eventual 3–1 group stage win against

FC Red Bull Salzburg FC Red Bull Salzburg is an Austrian professional football club based in Wals-Siezenheim, that competes in the Austrian Bundesliga, the top flight of Austrian Football. Their home ground is the Red Bull Arena. Due to sponsorship restrictions, ...

. He totalled only 11 appearances in his first season. Roca featured slightly more in 2021–22 as his team won the league again, but was once again a fringe first-team player.

Leeds United

On 17 June 2022, Leeds United announced that Roca would join the club on 1 July after an agreement was reached with Bayern Munich; he agreed to a four-year contract for a reported €12,000,000 fee that could eventually rise up on add-ons. He made his Premier League debut on 6 August, starting in a 2–1 home victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers. He scored his first goal one month later, in the 5–2 away defeat to

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

. Roca returned to Spain in summer 2023, on a season-long loan at Real Betis.

International career

On 28 December 2016, Roca made his debut for the Catalonia autonomous team, starting in a 3–3 draw against Tunisia (4–2 penalty loss). He was named in Spain's under-21 squad for the 2019 UEFA European Championship, starting the final three games of the tournament for the eventual winners including a 4–1 semi-final victory over France in which he scored.

Career statistics

Honours

Espanyol *

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 ...

Bayern Munich * Bundesliga:

, 2021–22 *

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Spain U21 * UEFA European Under-21 Championship:

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

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roca, Marc 1996 births Living people People from Vilafranca del Penedès Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Province of Barcelona Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players RCD Espanyol B footballers RCD Espanyol footballers Real Betis players Bundesliga players FC Bayern Munich footballers Premier League players Leeds United F.C. players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Catalonia men's international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in England Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England