Francisco Nicolás Veza Fragoso (born 6 December 1970), known as Paqui, is a Spanish retired footballer who played 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 ...

. He played professionally for six clubs during 16 years, mainly Tenerife and Las Palmas.

Club career

Paqui was born in

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in th ...

, Province of Valencia. An unsuccessful FC Barcelona youth graduate (only played for the Catalans' B-team) he went on to represent CD Tenerife, Real Zaragoza,

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 ...

and UD Las Palmas; he was instrumental in the latter's 2000 return to La Liga, and also served a loan to fellow league club CA Osasuna whilst under contract. Paqui retired from the game in June 2004 after Las Palmas' relegation into the

third division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

, totalling 221 matches and two goals in the Spanish top flight.

International career

Paqui was part of Spain's gold medal-winning squad at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

in Barcelona.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paqui 1970 births Living people Footballers from Alicante (city) Spanish footballers Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players FC Barcelona C players FC Barcelona Atlètic players CD Tenerife players Real Zaragoza players Hércules CF players UD Las Palmas players CA Osasuna players Spain youth international footballers Spain under-21 international footballers Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Spain Olympic medalists in football Olympic gold medalists for Spain Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics