Mikel Arruabarrena Aranbide (born 9 February 1983) is a Spanish former 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 centre-forward, currently

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Tolosa CF Tolosa Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team based in Tolosa, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1922, it plays in the Tercera División RFEF – Group 4, holding home games at '' Estadio Beratzubi'', with a capacity ...

Club career

Born in Tolosa,

Basque Country Basque Country may refer to: * Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map) * French Basque Country o ...

, Arruabarrena had stints with local giants

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

and

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

se neighbours CA Osasuna, but did not made it past the reserves on either occasion. From

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, he played in the

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 ...

with Xerez CD and CD Tenerife. Arruabarrena was bought by Poland's

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning record 15 Ekstraklasa champions titles, a ...

alongside compatriots

Iñaki Descarga Iñaki Descarga Retegui (born 25 August 1976) is a Spanish former footballer. Mainly a central defender, he could also operate as a right back. He started and ended his 16-year professional career with Real Unión, but played mainly for Levante ...

and

Iñaki Astiz Iñaki Astiz Ventura (born 5 November 1983) is a Spanish former professional association football, footballer who played as a central defender. He currently serves as the assistant coach of Legia Warsaw. Formed at CA Osasuna, Osasuna, he spent ...

in June 2008. However, in January of the following year, he was loaned to SD Eibar also in his native region and the second division, not being able to prevent the team from eventually dropping down a tier. In that summer, Arruabarrena arranged for a buyout of his Legia contract to remain at Eibar permanently, completing several seasons with the side in

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 ...

. On 12 December 2012, he was decisive in eliminating former club Athletic from the Copa del Rey, after scoring in a 1–1 draw at the San Mamés Stadium (his team progressed on the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

). Arruabarrena contributed 36 games and seven goals in the 2013–14 season, as the ''Armeros'' promoted to La Liga for the first time ever. He renewed his link with the club on 27 June 2014, and made his debut in the competition on 24 August at the age of 31, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 home win against

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 ...

. Arruabarrena scored his first goal in the Spanish top flight on 24 September 2014, in a 1–1 home draw against Villarreal CF. On 24 January 2016, he was loaned to SD Huesca from the second division until the end of the season. In 2016, Arruabarrena left Spain again, to join AEL Limassol of the Cypriot First Division. He returned to his country in January 2018, signing a two-year deal with third-tier

CF Fuenlabrada Club de Fútbol Fuenlabrada, S.A.D. is a football club based in Fuenlabrada, Community of Madrid, Spain, that currently competes in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, the third tier of the Spanish league system. It was founded in 1975. It holds ...

Honours

Eibar *

: 2013–14

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arruabarrena, Mikel 1983 births Living people People from Tolosa, Spain Sportspeople from Gipuzkoa Spanish footballers Footballers from the Basque Country (autonomous community) Association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players CD Basconia footballers Bilbao Athletic footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers CA Osasuna B players Xerez CD footballers CD Tenerife players SD Eibar footballers CD Leganés players SD Huesca footballers CF Fuenlabrada footballers Pontevedra CF footballers Ekstraklasa players Legia Warsaw players Cypriot First Division players AEL Limassol players Spain youth international footballers Basque Country international footballers Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Poland Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Poland Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Spanish football managers Tercera División managers Tercera Federación managers