Mikel Aranburu Eizagirre (born 18 February 1979) is a Spanish retired 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 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 ...
.
He spent his entire professional career with
Real Sociedad
Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...
, appearing in 427 official matches for the club and scoring 32 goals.
Club career
Born in
Azpeitia
, population_note =
, population_density_km2 = auto
, blank_name_sec1 = Official language(s)
, blank_info_sec1 =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST = CEST
, u ...
,
Gipuzkoa
Gipuzkoa (, , ; es, Guipúzcoa ; french: Guipuscoa) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French depa ...
, Aranburu made his professional debut aged 18, in the last round of
1996–97 against
CD Logroñés
Club Deportivo Logroñés, S.A.D. was a Spanish football team based in Logroño, in the autonomous community of La Rioja. Founded in 1940, it last played in ''Regional Preferente de La Rioja''.
Due to financial problems, since 2009 the club has ...
, courtesy of manager
Javier Irureta
Javier Iruretagoyena Amiano (born 1 April 1948), Irureta for short, is a Spanish retired football attacking midfielder and manager.
He had a distinguished playing career with Atlético Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, playing in 344 La Liga ga ...
. From
his fourth season onwards he became a full member of the main squad, being essential as the
Basques
The Basques ( or ; eu, euskaldunak ; es, vascos ; french: basques ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Bas ...
finished second 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 ...
in
2002–03 by contributing with 34 games and two goals.
Aranburu was seriously injured during
2005–06, and returned to major action only to see Real
be relegated the following year, the first time in four decades. He continued to be an important first-team member during 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 ...
campaigns, appearing in 35 matches in
2009–10 to help the ''Txuriurdin'' return to the top level after three years.
In the promotion season, Mikel Aranburu was once again the regular starter to return the team to the
First Division, playing 35 games and scoring 2 goals. In
2010–11, Aranburu was once again first-choice, partnering
Diego Rivas in central defensive midfield in most of the games. He equalled a career-best five goals, including two in a 4–0 away win against
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 ...
– he only played five minutes in the game– and the all-important
last-minute winner at home against
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 ...
in the 36th round (2–1), as the side narrowly retained their division status.
International career
He has played several international friendly matches with the
Euskadi
The Basque Country (; eu, Euskadi ; es, País Vasco ), also called Basque Autonomous Community ( eu, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa, links=no, EAE; es, Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco, links=no, CAPV), is an Autonomous communities of Spain, a ...
Soccer Team and has even served as captain of that team.
Honours
*
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 ...
:
2009–10
See also
*
List of one-club men in association football
:
A one-club man is a sportsman who has played his entire professional career with only one club. The term is often used in the context of team sports such as football or rugby.
Retired players
:''Players must have been at their club for a mi ...
*
List of Real Sociedad players
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aranburu, Mikel
1979 births
Living people
People from Azpeitia
Spanish footballers
Footballers from the Basque Country (autonomous community)
Association football midfielders
La Liga players
Segunda División players
Segunda División B players
Tercera División players
Real Sociedad B footballers
Real Sociedad footballers
Basque Country international footballers