Mikel Balenziaga Oruesagasti (; ; born 29 February 1988) 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 ...

who plays as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

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 ...

Club career

Born in Zumarraga,

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 ...

, Balenziaga started his football grooming at

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 ...

, playing two full seasons with its B team in the third division. However, in 2008–09, he switched to neighbours

. Initially thought of as a member of the reserve side, Balenziaga quickly beat competition from veterans

Koikili Koikili Lertxundi del Campo (born 23 December 1980), known simply as Koikili or Koi for short, is a Spanish former footballer who played as a left-back. A late bloomer, he only became a professional at the age of 26 after signing with Athletic ...

and Javier Casas to become the undisputed first choice for the vast majority of the campaign, making his first-team debut on 14 September 2008 in a 0–0 away draw 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, ...

; another club graduate,

Ander Iturraspe Ander Iturraspe Derteano (; ; born 8 March 1989) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He spent all but the final season of his career at Athletic Bilbao, appearing in 320 matches across all competiti ...

, also made his first

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 ...

appearance in that game. In July 2009, Athletic bought

Xabi Castillo Xabier 'Xabi' Castillo Aranburu (born 29 March 1986) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a left-back. Club career Born in Durango, Biscay, Castillo came up through the ranks at Athletic Bilbao, but made his senior debut wit ...

from neighbours Real Sociedad and Balenziaga, seeing his chances for the upcoming season dim, accepted a loan move to

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 ...

, recently relegated from the top division. He transferred to

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 ...

on a three-year contract in the summer of 2011, after an unassuming

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

in which he made only one official appearance for the ''Lions''. After two solid years in

Castile and León Castile and León ( es, Castilla y León ; ast-leo, Castiella y Llión ; gl, Castela e León ) is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983, eight years after the end of the Francoist regime, by the merging of the ...

, Balenziaga returned to Athletic for 2013–14 to challenge for a first-team spot under new manager

Ernesto Valverde Ernesto Valverde Tejedor (born 9 February 1964) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a forward. He is the current manager of La Liga club Athletic Bilbao. Over ten seasons, he amassed La Liga totals of 264 games and 68 ...

. He scored his first ever goal as a professional on 24 September 2016, helping the hosts defeat

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA Euro ...

3–1 in the domestic league.

International career

Balenziaga appeared once for the Spain under-21 team, playing 58 minutes in a 4–1 friendly away loss to

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

on 18 November 2008. He also featured for the unofficial Basque Country regional side.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Athletic Bilbao *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

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 ...

runner-up: 2014–15, 2019–20,

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balenziaga, Mikel 1988 births Living people People from Goierri Sportspeople from Gipuzkoa Spanish footballers Footballers from the Basque Country (autonomous community) Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Sociedad B footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers CD Numancia players Real Valladolid players Spain youth international footballers Spain under-21 international footballers Basque Country international footballers