Miguel Linares Cólera (born 30 September 1982) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

Club career

Born in Zaragoza,

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 ...

, Linares began his career at Utebo FC of Tercera División. He spent the 2004–05 season with Deportivo Aragón in the

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 ...

and had a brief spell at SD Huesca before joining

UD Barbastro Unión Deportiva Barbastro is a Spanish football team based in Barbastro, in the autonomous community of Aragon. Founded in 1934, it plays in Regional Preferente de Aragón, holding home games at ''Estadio Municipal de Deportes'', with capacity ...

in 2006, who were relegated from the third tier in his first campaign. In summer 2008, following a 34-goal haul, Linares moved outside his native region for the first time, joining CD Alcoyano. He contributed 15 goals from 35 matches in his only season as the Valencians won their group, eventually falling short in the promotion play-offs 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 ...

. Linares signed a two-year deal with UD Salamanca on 22 June 2009. After one season at the Estadio Helmántico – making his professional debut on 30 August in a 1–0 away win against

Cádiz CF Cádiz Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., known simply as Cádiz, is a Spanish professional football club based in Cádiz, Andalusia. Founded in 1910, the club competes in the La Liga, holding home games at Nuevo Mirandilla, with a seating capacity of 20 ...

at the age of 26 years and 11 months– he transferred to fellow league team Elche CF. The latter won the championship and promotion to La Liga in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, though he made only eight appearances and scored once; during his tenure, he suffered two consecutive anterior cruciate ligament injuries to his right knee. Following this, Linares remained in the second tier with Recreativo de Huelva, and in 2014 the 32-year-old moved to

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo is a Spanish football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926 as a result of the merger of two clubs who had maintained a large sporting rivalry for years in the city: ''Real Stadium Club Ovetense'' and ''Real Club De ...

one league down. He was top scorer with 30 goals (31 across all competitions) in 39 games as the

Asturians Asturians ( ast, asturianos) are a Celtic- Romance ethnic group native to the autonomous community of Asturias, in the North-West of the Iberian Peninsula. Culture and society Heritage Asturians are directly descended from the Astures, who w ...

won the title in 2014–15, including two in a 3–0 win over Gimnàstic de Tarragona in the second leg of the

play-off final The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

on 10 June 2015. The previous October/November, he had scored hat-tricks in consecutive home defeats of

Celta de Vigo B Real Club Celta de Vigo, S.A.D. "B" is a Spanish football team based in Vigo, Pontevedra, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Founded in 1927, it is the reserve team of Celta Vigo and competes in the Primera Federación – Group 1. They ...

, CD Lealtad and Real Murcia. On 17 June 2018, Linares joined

CF Reus Deportiu Club de Futbol Reus Deportiu, S.A.D. was a Spanish football team based in Reus, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1909, it last competed in the Segunda Division (while its B team competed in the Tercera Division) before foldi ...

in the second division after agreeing to a one-year contract. Halfway through the season, however, he left the club after it was expelled from the Liga de Fútbol Profesional due to unpaid wages, joining Real Zaragoza shortly after. Linares retired in January 2022 at the age of 39, after two years at lower-league side SD Ejea where he failed to play a single competitive game due to another serious knee injury.

Career statistics

Honours

Elche *

2012–13 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 ...

Oviedo *

: 2014–15

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Linares, Miguel 1982 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Zaragoza Men's association football forwards Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Deportivo Aragón players SD Huesca footballers UD Barbastro players CD Alcoyano footballers UD Salamanca players Elche CF players Recreativo de Huelva players Real Oviedo players CF Reus Deportiu players Real Zaragoza players SD Ejea players Utebo FC players