Antonio "Toni" Doblas Santana (born 5 August 1980) is a Spanish former

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

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 ...

. He spent the better part of his professional career with Betis, appearing in 95 competitive matches and winning one

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 ...

. He also had several spells with Xerez and

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

Club career

Spain

Born in

Bellavista, Seville Bellavista is a neighbourhood in the Bellavista-La Palmera district in the south of the city of Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It lies on the east bank of the Guadaira river, a tributary of the Guadalquivir. Bellavista once belonged to the town of Dos ...

, Doblas spent four seasons with local

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 ...

's B-team, where he was the undisputed starter before moving on loan to

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

n neighbours

Xerez CD Xerez Club Deportivo, known simply as Xerez, is a Spanish football team based in Jerez de la Frontera, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Xerez currently plays in Tercera División RFEF, the fifth tier of Spanish football. Founded on 24 ...

. He made only four appearances in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

and returned to Betis' first side the year after, being called into immediate main-squad action due to injuries to

Pedro Contreras Pedro Contreras González (born 7 January 1972) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played in 246 La Liga games over the course of 13 seasons, representing in the competition Real Madrid, Rayo Vallecano, Málaga and ...

and Toni Prats. Doblas made his

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 ...

debut against

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol (), or simply Getafe, is a professional football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. The team competes in La Liga, the highest tier of the Spanish football system. The club's home stadium (owned and op ...

on 24 October 2004, in a 2–0 away win. He remained a starter for the remainder of the campaign, taking part in the 2005

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

against

CA 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 Sa ...

which Betis won 2–1; in the competition's semi-final second leg against

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 ...

he saved two

penalties Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

in a

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...

and, in August 2005, he signed his first professional contract at already 25. Doblas was also a key element in Betis' first-ever qualification to the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

, as he saved a

Camel Meriem Camel Meriem ( ar, كامل مريم; born 18 October 1979) is a French former professional footballer who played as a midfielder for Sochaux, Bordeaux, Marseille, AS Monaco, Aris, Arles-Avignon, OGC Nice, and Apollon Limassol. He has represent ...

penalty against

AS Monaco FC Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club SA, commonly referred to as AS Monaco () or Monaco, is a professional football club based in Monaco that is member of French Football Federation (FFF) and competes in Ligue 1, the top tier of Fre ...

in the third qualify round, a 3–2 win. During the league season errors cost him his position, regained by Contreras: his most notable mistake came against

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

Stamford Bridge Stamford Bridge may refer to: * Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire, a village in England ** Battle of Stamford Bridge, 25 September 1066 * Stamford Bridge (bridge), a bridge in the village of Stamford Bridge * Stamford Bridge (stadium), in L ...

, when he gave

Ricardo Carvalho Ricardo Alberto Silveira de Carvalho (; born 18 May 1978) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Carvalho began his career at Porto, where he had loan spells at Leça, Vitória de Setúbal and Alverca, ...

a goal in an eventual 0–4 Champions League loss; he still managed 24 league appearances, a situation repeated (also with Contreras as backup) in the 2006–07 campaign. Midway through 2007–08, Doblas suffered a serious injury in a friendly that kept him out of action for five months – he was supposed to battle for first-choice status with new signing

Ricardo Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese cognate of the name Richard. It derived from Proto-Germanic ''*rīks'' 'king, ruler' + ''*harduz'' 'hard, brave'. It may be a given name, or a surname. People Given name *Ricardo de Araújo Pereira, Portugu ...

. He was reinstated in the squad in late April, donning nº 25 after teammate

Rafael Sobis Rafael may refer to: * Rafael (given name) or Raphael, a name of Hebrew origin * Rafael, California * Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israeli manufacturer of weapons and military technology * Hurricane Rafael, a 2012 hurricane Fiction * ''R ...

switched to 21; in June 2008 he was released by Betis and, on 1 September, joined second level side

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

, meeting the same fate at the end of the season. On 8 September 2009, Doblas was supposed to sign for

Aris Thessaloniki F.C. Aris FC ( el, ΠΑΕ Άρης), commonly known as Aris Thessaloniki FC, AFC or simply Aris, is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. Created in 1914 as ''Aris Thessaloniki Football Club'', th ...

in Greece for one year, joining a squad with three other countrymen and with Donato who played in Spain for 15 years as assistant manager; eventually, the deal fell through and he returned to Spain, moving to

SD Huesca Sociedad Deportiva Huesca, S.A.D., is a Spanish football club in Huesca, in the autonomous community of Aragon. Founded on 29 March 1960, SD Huesca plays in the Segunda División, having played in the Spanish top division for the first time in t ...

in early November. Doblas returned to Zaragoza on 9 July 2010, signing a two-year deal with an option to a third season. In the following off-season, after having shared first-choice duties with

Leo Franco Leonardo "Leo" Neoren Franco (born 20 May 1977) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and is a manager. After starting out at Independiente in 1995, he went on to spend the vast majority of his career in Sp ...

as the club narrowly avoided top level relegation, he was loaned to another former club, Xerez.

Abroad / Later years

In January 2013, Doblas signed an 18-month contract with

Azerbaijan Premier League The Azerbaijan Premier League ( az, Azərbaycan Premyer Liqası) is a professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Azerbaijan football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is conteste ...

side

FK Khazar Lankaran Khazar Lankaran FK ( tly, Xəzər Lankon Futboli Klub, script=Latn, az, Xəzər Lənkəran Futbol Klubu) is an Azerbaijani football club based in Lankaran that last played in the Azerbaijan Premier League during the 2015–16 season. Since the ...

. Six months later, following an 0–8 home defeat to

Maccabi Haifa F.C. Maccabi Haifa Football Club ( he, מועדון הכדורגל מכבי חיפה, ''Moadon HaKaduregel Maccabi Haifa'') is an Israeli professional football club, based in the city of Haifa, Israel, a section of Maccabi Haifa sports club. The cl ...

in the

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 ...

second qualifying round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds eac ...

, he was one of four players to have their contracts terminated. On 27 February 2014, Doblas moved to

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

S.S.C. Napoli Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli (), is an Football in Italy, Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in the city of Naples ( it, Napoli, nap, Napule), Camp ...

for four months, as the

Rafael Benítez Rafael Benítez Maudes (born 16 April 1960) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player who most recently managed club Everton. Benítez joined Real Madrid's coaching staff at the age of 26, going on to work as the under-1 ...

-led team had several problems in the goalkeeper position, most notably

Rafael Cabral Rafael Cabral Barbosa (born 20 May 1990), known as Rafael Cabral or simply Rafael, is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Cruzeiro. Club career Santos Born in Sorocaba, Rafael joined Santos youth system in 2003. ...

who suffered 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 ...

-ending injury. On 12 August he changed clubs and countries again, signing with

Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki, or simply as HJK, is a professional football club based in Helsinki, Finland. The club competes in the Finnish Veikkausliiga. Founded in 1907, the club has spent most of its history i ...

as a short-term replacement for Michael Tørnes. In November 2014, Doblas became involved in a match-fixing investigation surrounding the 21 May 2011 fixture between Zaragoza and

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 ...

. On 29 August of the following year, following a brief spell back in his country with lowly

UE Cornellà Unión Esportiva Cornellà, S. A. D. ( ca, Unió Esportiva Cornellà) is a Spanish football team based in Cornellà de Llobregat, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1951 it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding ...

, he signed for

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is an Indian professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Organised by the All India Football Federat ...

franchise

Delhi Dynamos FC Odisha Football Club () is an Indian professional football club based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. Prior to the inaugural Indian Super League season, the club was founded ...

. Until his retirement, Doblas represented in quick succession

CD Toledo Club Deportivo Toledo, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Toledo, in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. Founded in 1928 it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 18, holding home games at ''Estadio Salto del Caballo'', w ...

, Delhi Dynamos again,

Extremadura UD Extremadura Unión Deportiva was a Spanish football team based in Almendralejo, in the autonomous community of Extremadura. Founded in 2007, it last played in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, holding home games at ''Estadio Francisco de la Her ...

and

CD San Fernando Club Deportivo San Fernando was a Spanish football team based in San Fernando, Cádiz, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1940 it was dissolved on 16 June 2009, due a €2 million debt. The club's home ground was '' Estadio Ba ...

. In December 2017, the 37-year-old moved to

Ceres–Negros F.C. United City Football Club is a Filipino professional football club based in New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac, that competes in Philippines Football League (PFL), the top-tier league of football in the Philippines. From 2012 to 2020, the club was ...

of the

Philippines Football League The Philippines Football League, commonly known as PFL, is a Filipino professional football league sanctioned by the Philippine Football Federation (PFF). It is the Philippines' highest level of men's club football, supplanting the United Footb ...

, with the deal being made effective at the start of the 2018 season.

Personal life

Still during his career, Doblas majored in

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

Club statistics

Honours

Betis *

: 2004–05 Napoli *

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

: 2013–14 HJK *

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga (; sv, Tipsligan) is the premier division of Finnish football, the highest tier of the Finnish football league structure, comprising the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agency Veikkau ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Finnish Cup The Finnish Cup ( fi, Suomen cup; sv, Finlands cup) is Finland's main national cup competition in football. This yearly competition is open for all member clubs of the FA of Finland and has been played since 1955. The winner qualifies for the ...

References

External links

*
Betisweb stats and bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doblas, Toni 1980 births Living people Footballers from Seville Spanish footballers Association football goalkeepers La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Betis Deportivo Balompié footballers Real Betis players Xerez CD footballers Real Zaragoza players SD Huesca footballers UE Cornellà players CD Toledo players Extremadura UD footballers Azerbaijan Premier League players Khazar Lankaran FK players Serie A players S.S.C. Napoli players Veikkausliiga players Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi players Indian Super League players Odisha FC players Ceres–Negros F.C. players Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Azerbaijan Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Finland Expatriate footballers in India Expatriate footballers in the Philippines Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Azerbaijan Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Finland Spanish expatriate sportspeople in India Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the Philippines