Enrique "Quique" Álvarez Sanjuán (; born 20 July 1975) is a Spanish retired

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

central defender 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 ...

. In a 16-year professional career he appeared in 370 games, 201 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 ...

. Having started his career at

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, where he had no impact for its first team – one match – he would be an important member of

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

's top-flight consolidation, representing the club for seven years.

Playing career

Álvarez was born in

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Penins ...

, Galicia. Grown through the ranks of

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 ...

, he played only one

game for the

Catalans Catalans (Catalan language, Catalan, French language, French and Occitan language, Occitan: ''catalans''; es, catalanes, Italian language, Italian: ''catalani'', sc, cadelanos) are a Romance languages, Romance ethnic group native to Cataloni ...

in the 1995–96 season, then spent one loan stint with

CD Logroñés Club Deportivo Logroñés, S.A.D. was a Spanish football team based in Logroño, in the autonomous community of La Rioja. Founded in 1940, it last played in ''Regional Preferente de La Rioja''. Due to financial problems, since 2009 the club has ...

before being released, after which he joined ''Barça'' neighbours

UE Lleida Unió Esportiva Lleida was a Spanish football team based in Lleida, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. It was founded as ''Lérida Balompié-AEM'' on 30 October 1939, and became ''Unión Deportiva Lérida'' in 1947, after a merger with ''C ...

(both teams were 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 ...

). Álvarez made a name for himself during his spell at

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or simply Villarreal, is a professional football club based in Villarreal, in the Castellón province of eastern Spain, th ...

, where he was

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

when a starter. Having made 250 competitive appearances – second-most for the club behind Argentine

Rodolfo Arruabarrena Rodolfo Martín Arruabarrena (born 20 July 1975) is an Argentine professional football manager and former footballer, who is the current head coach of the United Arab Emirates national football team. As a footballer, he played as a left back ...

– his role would diminish in the 2006–07 campaign however, as Villarreal finished fifth (only 15 matches). In July 2007, Álvarez joined

Recreativo de Huelva Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, S.A.D. () is a Spanish football club based in Huelva, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 23 December 1889, 2 days before Christmas, they are the oldest football club in Spain, and currently play i ...

, where his

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 ...

would be constantly bothered by injuries. In one of his few league appearances, on 1 March 2008, he was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

for a dangerous challenge on

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

Arjen Robben Arjen Robben (; born 23 January 1984) is a Dutch former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Winger (football), winger. He was known for his Dribbling#Association football, dribbling skills, speed, ball control and long ...

after just six minutes on the pitch (the former was brought on in the 64'), during a 2–3 home loss. In 2008–09 he only took part in one league game for already doomed ''Recre'', a 2–1 defeat at

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting (although in an international context this can lead to confusion with Sporting Clube de Portugal) is a Spanish football club from Gijón, P ...

in the last round, and was subsequently released.

Coaching career

Retired at 34, Álvarez moved into coaching, starting with Barcelona's ''Juvenil A''. He returned to Villarreal on 26 September 2017, as part of his former teammate

Javier Calleja Javier Calleja Revilla (born 12 May 1978) is a Spanish retired footballer who played mainly as a left midfielder, currently manager of Levante UD. He amassed La Liga totals of 192 matches and nine goals over one decade, mainly with Villarreal ( ...

's staff; the pair were fired on 10 December 2018, being reinstated the following 29 January after the dismissal of Luis García. Álvarez and Calleja later worked together at

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 ...

Personal life

Álvarez's father,

Quique Costas Enrique "Quique" Álvarez Costas (; born 16 January 1947) is a Spanish retired football defender and coach. He played 229 La Liga matches over the course of 11 seasons (nine goals), in representation of Celta and Barcelona. Costas began a len ...

, also a footballer and a defender, played professionally with

RC Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), ...

and Barcelona. He later became a manager, coinciding with his son on one occasion. Álvarez's younger brother,

Óscar Oscar or Oskar is a masculine given name of Irish origin. Etymology The name is derived from two elements in Irish: the first, ''os'', means "deer"; the second element, ''car'', means "loving" or "friend", thus "deer-loving one" or "friend of deer" ...

, who occupied the same position, played mainly in the second and third tiers.

Honours

Villarreal *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarez, Quique 1975 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Catalonia Footballers from Vigo Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Barcelona players CD Logroñés footballers UE Lleida players Villarreal CF players Recreativo de Huelva players Spain under-21 international footballers Spain under-23 international footballers Catalonia international footballers FC Barcelona non-playing staff Villarreal CF non-playing staff