Rubén Peña Jiménez (born 18 July 1991) 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

right-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 ...

or winger for club

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El ...

. He made over 175

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 ...

appearances for

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 ...

, Eibar, Villarreal and

, winning the

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 ...

with the third of those clubs in

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Career

Early career

Born in

Ávila Ávila (, , ) is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Ávila. It lies on the right bank of the Adaja river. Located more than 1,130 m abov ...

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 ...

, Peña made his senior debut with local club

Real Ávila CF Real Ávila Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Ávila, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded in 1923, it currently plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 8, holding home games at '' Estadio Adolfo ...

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 ...

. In the summer of 2012 he signed for

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 ...

, being initially assigned to the reserves in the same level. Peña appeared in his first official game with the first team on 1 November 2012, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 home win against

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

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 ...

(3–1 aggregate loss). He made his

debut ten days later, coming on as a late substitute in a 1–1 home draw with Valencia CF. On 13 August 2013, Peña joined

CD Guijuelo Club Deportivo Guijuelo is a Spanish football team based in Guijuelo, Province of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded in 1974 it plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 1, holding home games at the 1,500-seat ...

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

. On 10 July of the following year he moved to

CD Leganés Club Deportivo Leganés, S.A.D. is a football club based in Leganés, Community of Madrid, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. It was founded on 23 June 1928. It holds home games at ...

, newly promoted to 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 ...

Eibar

On 16 June 2016, after being an important figure in ''Lega's'' first-ever promotion to the top flight, Peña signed a three-year deal with

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in eu, Eibar Kirol Elkartea) is a professional Spanish football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the team currently plays in the Segunda División, the s ...

in the same league. He finished his first season with 28 appearances and one goal, helping to a tenth-place finish. Peña was converted into a

by manager

José Luis Mendilibar José Luis Mendilibar Etxebarria (born 14 March 1961) is a Spanish former Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder, currently Manager (association football), manager of Sevilla FC. He played no higher than Segunda División, ...

during 2017–18. He became a regular starter in that position the following campaign, after the departure of Ander Capa.

Villarreal

On 4 July 2019, Peña joined

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 ...

on a five-year contract. He made his competitive debut on 17 August, starting and scoring an own goal in a 4–4 home draw against Granada CF. His first goal in the correct net came on 2 February 2020 in a 3–1 victory over CA Osasuna also at the

Estadio de la Cerámica Estadio de la Cerámica, formerly and informally called El Madrigal (), is a football stadium in Villarreal, Spain, used since 1923. It is currently the home venue of Villarreal CF of La Liga, the highest football league in Spain. The stadium has ...

. Peña struggled for game time after the signing of

Juan Foyth Juan Marcos Foyth (born 12 January 1998) is an Argentine professional football player who plays as right-back or centre-back for Spanish club Villarreal and the Argentina national team. Having begun his professional career at his hometown club ...

in 2020, and was an unused substitute as the team won the

2021 UEFA Europa League final The 2021 UEFA Europa League Final was the final match of the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League, the 50th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 12th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA ...

against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. He was put up for sale, and was due to be loaned to

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 ...

at the start of 2022, but it was called off when he injured his collarbone in a

cup game A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

at Atlético Sanluqueño CF.

Osasuna

On 17 June 2022, with Foyth,

Mario Gaspar Mario Gaspar Pérez Martínez (; born 24 November 1990) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for EFL Championship club Watford as a right-back. He spent 15 years of his career at Villarreal, making 424 official appearances and winning ...

and

Serge Aurier Serge Alain Stéphane Aurier (; born 24 December 1992) is an Ivorian professional footballer who currently plays as a right back for Premier League club Nottingham Forest and captains the Ivory Coast national team. Aurier moved to France as a c ...

ahead of him at right-back, Peña reached an agreement to terminate his Villarreal contract three years early. On the same day, he signed for Osasuna until 2025.

Career statistics

Honours

Villarreal *

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 ...

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:Pena, Ruben 1991 births Living people People from Ávila, Spain Sportspeople from the Province of Ávila Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Castile and León Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football wingers La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Real Ávila CF players Real Valladolid Promesas players Real Valladolid players CD Guijuelo footballers CD Leganés players SD Eibar footballers Villarreal CF players CA Osasuna players UEFA Europa League winning players