Oier Olazábal Paredes (born 14 September 1989), known simply as Oier, 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 as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for

FC Andorra Futbol Club Andorra is a professional football club based in Andorra la Vella, Andorra, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. The club was founded in 1942 and currently plays its home fixtu ...

Club career

Barcelona

Born in

Irun Irun ( es, Irún, eu, Irun) is a town of the Bidasoaldea region in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. History It lies on the foundations of the ancient Oiasso, cited as ...

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 ...

, Basque Country, Oier arrived in

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 ...

's youth academy at the age of 18, from local

Real Unión Real Unión Club, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Irun, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa, near the border with France. Founded on 15 May 1915 it currently plays in Primera División RFEF ...

. He spent his first years with the reserves as backup to another youth product, Rubén. Oier made his debut for the first team on 2 January 2008, in the 2–2 home draw against

CD Alcoyano Club Deportivo Alcoyano, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Alcoy, in the autonomous community of Valencia. Founded in 1928 it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding home games in ''Estadio El Collao'', with a 4,850-seat ...

in the

round of 32 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

of the

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 ...

. More than one year after, on 17 May, he appeared for the first time 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 ...

as ''Barça'' were already

champions A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the Victory, victor in a challenge, Competition, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and w ...

, in a 2–1 away loss to

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, S.A.D. (, ca, Reial Club Deportiu Mallorca , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or just Mallorca is a Spanish professional football club based in Palma on the island of Majorca in ...

. For the 2009–10 campaign, after

Albert Jorquera Albert Jorquera Fortià (born 3 March 1979) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He spent the bulk of his professional career with Barcelona (ten years, including loans), but could never be more than second or third choic ...

left for neighbours

Girona FC Girona Futbol Club, S.A.D. is a professional football club based in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Founded on 23 July 1930, it plays in La Liga, to which they gained promotion in the 2022 Segunda División play-offs. Girona holds its home matches at ...

, Oier was promoted to third choice. He still continued to appear regularly for the B's, however.

Granada

On 11 July 2014, Oier signed a three-year deal with

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. (), known simply as Granada, is a Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that plays in the Segunda División, after being relegated from La Liga in the 2021� ...

for an undisclosed fee. On 25 August of the following year, he was loaned to fellow top-division side

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 ...

in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

-long deal.

Levante

On 29 January 2017, Oier was loaned to

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 ...

for the rest of the campaign with the option to buy in event of promotion; he replaced

Álex Remiro Alejandro "Álex" Remiro Gargallo (born 24 March 1995) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Real Sociedad. Formed at Athletic Bilbao, he played as a senior with Basconia, Bilbao Athletic, Levante, Huesca and Real ...

, whose own temporary switch from

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 ...

had been curtailed. Manager

Juan Ramón López Muñiz Juan Ramón López Muñiz (born 2 November 1968) is a Spanish former footballer who played as a central defender, currently a manager. Playing career Muñiz was born in Gijón, Asturias. During his playing days, he represented hometown club Spo ...

began playing him in place of Raúl Fernández in the final matches, including in the goalless draw at

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 20 May that saw the ''Granotas'' crowned

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 ...

champions. Oier took the starting place from Fernández in the top flight, and signed a new deal in June 2018 to last until 2021, with a further year as an option.

Espanyol

Having only been used in cup games due to Paco López' preference for Aitor Fernández, Oier left for

RCD Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

on 31 January 2020 for a €1.5 million fee, signing until June 2022 with the option of another season after that. Due to Diego López' suspension, he debuted on 13 June as the 70th goalkeeper in the club's history in a 2–0 home win over

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually abbreviated to Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the ...

Pafos

On 17 August 2022, Oier moved abroad for the first time in his career and signed for

Pafos FC Pafos FC ( el, Πάφος FC) is a Cypriot football club based in Paphos. The club was created in 2014, by the merger of the two biggest teams of Paphos, AEP Paphos and AEK Kouklia. They play their home games at the Stelios Kyriakides Stadium, ...

in the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

. He featured in only two games during his spell.

Andorra

Oier returned to Spain and its second tier on 29 August 2023, after agreeing to a two-year contract at

International career

On 30 December 2016, Oier made his one appearance for the unofficial Basque Country team, playing the second half of a 3–1 win over

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

at the San Mamés Stadium.

Career statistics

Honours

Barcelona *

: 2008–09 Levante *

: 2016–17 Espanyol *Segunda División:

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 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Olazabal, Oier 1989 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Irun Men's association football goalkeepers La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Unión footballers FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Barcelona players Granada CF footballers Real Sociedad footballers Levante UD footballers RCD Espanyol footballers FC Andorra players Cypriot First Division players Pafos FC players Spain men's youth international footballers Basque Country men's international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Andorra Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Andorra