Miguel Albiol Tortajada (; born 2 September 1981) is a Spanish former

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 mainly as a

right 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 ...

. In a 16-year professional career, he amassed

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 ...

totals of 178 matches and two goals over seven seasons, in representation of three clubs. 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 ...

, he appeared for

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 ...

Club career

Born in Vilamarxant,

Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with ...

, Albiol was a product of hometown Valencia CF's youth ranks as younger brother Raúl after him, and played once with its first team, during 2002–03's

. He finished that season in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

with Real Murcia, featuring regularly ''

en route ''En route'' may refer to: * ''En Route'' (novel), an 1895 novel by Joris-Karl Huysmans * ''En Route'' (film), a 2004 German movie directed by Jan Krüger * En-route chart, in aeronautics * enRoute (credit card), Air Canada's credit card divisio ...

'' to the club's promotion. Released by the ''Che'', Albiol spent a further year with Recreativo de Huelva (also second tier), then had a steady period with Rayo Vallecano. He was instrumental in the latter side's 2008 promotion to division two, after four consecutive playoff failures. In July 2009, apparently after having everything arranged with

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 ...

, Albiol agreed on a return move to Murcia, signing for three years. He appeared in 30 games in his first season – 22 starts, 2,200 minutes of play – which ended in second-division relegation.

Personal life

Albiol's younger brother, Raúl, was also a footballer. He represented with success Valencia,

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 ...

S.S.C. Napoli Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli (), is an Italian professional football club based in the city of Naples ( it, Napoli, nap, Napule), Campania that plays in Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. Napoli ha ...

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or simply Villarreal, is a professional football club based in Villarreal, in the Castellón province of eastern Spain, th ...

and the Spain national team.

References

External links

*
CiberChe stats and bio
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Albiol, Miguel 1981 births Living people People from Camp de Túria Sportspeople from the Province of Valencia Spanish footballers Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Valencia CF Mestalla footballers Valencia CF players Real Murcia players Recreativo de Huelva players Rayo Vallecano players Spain youth international footballers Spain under-21 international footballers