Miguel Alfonso Herrero Javaloyas (; born 29 July 1988), commonly known as Míchel , 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 mainly as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

for

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 ...

. He achieved

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 ...

totals of over 172 games 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 ...

, Deportivo, Levante,

Getafe Getafe () is a municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city centre, within a flat ar ...

and

Valladolid Valladolid () is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province o ...

Club career

Valencia

Born in

Burjassot Burjassot ( es, Burjasot) is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Horta Nord in the Valencian Community, Spain. Museums The Museum of Geology at the University of Valencia is located on calle Doctor Moliner. It has several collections of geolog ...

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 ...

, Míchel finished his football grooming at local

Burjassot CF Burjassot Club de Futbol is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Burjassot, in the autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia. Founded in 1913 as ''Club Verano Burjassot'', it plays in Divisiones Regionales ...

and started playing as a senior with

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the Spa ...

's reserves. After a string of midfield injuries to the main squad (

Rubén Baraja Rubén Baraja Vegas (; born 11 July 1975) is a Spanish retired footballer, currently manager of Valencia. A complete central midfielder with good tackling, technique, and offensive qualities, together with accurate passing and goalscoring abili ...

, Edu and Manuel Fernandes) he was called up by coach

Unai Emery Unai Emery Etxegoien (born 3 November 1971) is a Spanish football manager and former player who is the head coach of Premier League club Aston Villa. After a career spent playing mostly in Spain's Segunda División, Emery transitioned into coa ...

, making his

debut against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

, playing 20 minutes in a 4–0 away loss on 6 December 2008; previous to that, he had already appeared in a

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

against

Club Portugalete Club Portugalete is a Spanish football team based in Portugalete, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1909, it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 4, holding home games at ''Estadio La Florida'', with a capacity of 5 ...

, where he also scored. Míchel's first start occurred on 3 March 2009 in the 2–1 loss at

CD Numancia Club Deportivo Numancia de Soria, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club in Soria, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 April 1945, it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding home games at ''Nuevo Estadio Los ...

, as he began to be regularly summoned to the league's squad of 18 each week. He was delighted with his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

at Valencia, never having imagined he would be playing for the club's first team after being not much earlier in the

Tercera División Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segunda División'', and the semi-professional ''Segunda Di ...

Loans and Levante

In early June 2010, deemed surplus to requirements by coach Emery – for instance, in the 2009–10 campaign he only collected 28 minutes in the league, all as a late substitute – Míchel was loaned for one season to

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. They currently p ...

. He spent most of the campaign injured, and the

Galicians Galicians ( gl, galegos, es, gallegos, link=no) are a Celtic-Romance ethnic group from Spain that is closely related to the Portuguese people and has its historic homeland is Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance l ...

were also relegated after 20 straight years in the top flight. At

, where he spent the 2011–12 season, Míchel scored a career-best 13 goals, also being a key player as the team nearly returned to the top tier.El Levante ficha a Míchel, como agente libre (Levante sign Míchel, as free agent)

Goal A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ai ...

, 26 June 2012 (in Spanish) The club attempted to acquire the player permanently, but were eventually denied. Míchel rescinded his contract with Valencia in June 2012, and signed a three-year deal with neighbouring

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 ...

shortly after. He scored eight goals in 51 official games in his only season, including two in 11 in that campaign's

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

Return to Valencia

On 10 May 2013, Míchel agreed on a return to former club Valencia, penning a three-year link after his

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

420,000

buyout clause A buyout clause or release clause refers to a clause in a contract that imposes an obligation on another organisation wishing to acquire the services of the employee under contract to pay the (usually substantial) fee of the clause to the organisati ...

was paid. He made his debut in his second spell on 17 August, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 home win 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, ...

. Míchel was loaned to

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 ...

of the same league in late July 2014, for two years.

Guangzhou R&F

On 18 December 2014, Míchel was sold to Guangzhou R&F F.C. in the

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Association Super League, commonly known as Chinese Super League or CSL, currently known as the China Ping An Chinese Football Association Super League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest tier of professional football in ...

. He made his debut for his new team on 10 February of the following year, appearing in the second preliminary round of the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

against

Warriors FC Warriors Football Club is a Singaporean professional football club that played in the Singapore Premier League, the top division of football in Singapore. Before changing their name on 20 January 2013, they were previously known as the Singapo ...

. Míchel returned to Spain on loan in January 2016, 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 ...

of 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 ...

Valladolid

In August 2016, Míchel negotiated an end to his contract in China and signed a three-year deal with

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club colo ...

. Having consolidated their place in the top division, he extended by a further year at its conclusion. Míchel's link with was automatically renewed due to an appearances clause in the summer of 2020, amidst interest from

Göztepe S.K. Göztepe Spor Kulübü (, Göztepe Sports Club), also known as Göztepe, is a Turkish sports club based in the Göztepe and Güzelyalı neighborhoods of İzmir. The "AŞ" refers to ''incorporated company'', as besides football, the club also ...

of Turkey. However he stayed put, and became the new

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in October after Javi Moyano left. Míchel left the

Estadio José Zorrilla Estadio José Zorrilla () is a municipally-owned football stadium in Valladolid, Spain. The capacity of the stadium is 26,451 seats, making it the 22nd-largest stadium in Spain and the largest in Castile and León. History The stadium was built ...

on 30 June 2021, as his contract expired.

Tenerife

On 18 July 2021,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

Míchel joined second-division

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1912, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez Lóp ...

on a two-year deal. On 23 August 2022, he terminated his contract.

Personal life

In 2019, Míchel married

BeIN Sports beIN Sports ( ) is a global network of sports channels owned and operated by the Qatari media group beIN. It has played a major role in the increased commercialization of Qatari sports. Its chairman is Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and its CEO is Yousef O ...

reporter Celia Sanchís.

Career statistics

Club

References

External links

*
CiberChe stats and bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michel 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from the Province of Valencia People from Burjassot Spanish footballers Footballers from the Valencian Community Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Segunda Federación players Valencia CF Mestalla footballers Valencia CF players Deportivo de La Coruña players Hércules CF players Levante UD footballers Getafe CF footballers Real Oviedo players Real Valladolid players CD Tenerife players Chinese Super League players Guangzhou City F.C. players Spain under-21 international footballers Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in China Spanish expatriate sportspeople in China