Urko Rafael Pardo Goas ( el, Ούρκο Ράφαελ Πάρντο Γκόας; born 28 January 1983) is a retired 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 last 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 ...

for

Olympias Lympion Olympias Lympion is a Cypriot football club based in Lympia, Cyprus. Founded in 1941 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and p ...

. Formed 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 ...

, he spent most of his career in the Cypriot First Division, mainly with

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

with which he won eight titles including five league championships. He also competed professionally in Greece and Romania. After being awarded

citizenship Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...

, Pardo represented the Cyprus national team.

Club career

Barcelona

Born in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

to a Basque father and a Galician mother, Pardo began his football career with

R.S.C. Anderlecht ; french: Les Mauves et Blancs) , short name = R.S.C.A. , founded = , ground = Constant Vanden Stock Stadium , capacity = 22,500 , owntitle = Chairman , owner = Wouter Vandenhaute , manager = Brian Riemer , ...

, finishing his formation with

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 ...

but never making it past its

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...

. He split the 2005–06 season – always on loan – between FC Cartagena and CE Sabadell FC with both teams in 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 ...

, suffering relegation with the latter.

Rapid București / Greece

In the summer of 2007, released by Barcelona, Pardo signed with Greece's

Iraklis Thessaloniki FC Gymnastic Club Iraklis Thessaloniki Football Club ( el, Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Ηρακλής Θεσσαλονίκης) is a Greek professional football club based in the city of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece. As of 2022, ...

, moving the following year to

FC Rapid București Fotbal Club Rapid 1923, commonly known as Rapid București () or simply as Rapid, is a Romanian professional football club based in Bucharest, which competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1923 by employees of the Grivița workshops as ''Asoc ...

in Romania but appearing rarely in his first season. In 2009–10, another loan ensued as Pardo moved to

Olympiacos F.C. Olympiacos Club of Fans of Piraeus ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σ.Φ.Π. ), known simply as Olympiacos or Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional football club based in Piraeus, Attica. Part of the major multi-sport club Olympiacos CFP ('' ...

also in Greece, playing just three Superleague games in his first year. The move was extended by Rapid for the following season, and he appeared more regularly (Olympiacos were seeking a replacement for the legendary

Antonios Nikopolidis Antonis Nikopolidis ( el, Αντώνης Νικοπολίδης; born 14 January 1971) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and former manager of the Greece under-21 national team. He is regarded among the best ...

(40), who was set to retire in June 2011, and said the Spaniard would be a very good choice for succeeding him), being the most used player in his position.

Cyprus

In the last day of the 2011 summer

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer win ...

, Pardo signed a two-year contract with Cyprus champions APOEL FC. He made his official debut on 19 October against

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

, replacing injured

Dionisis Chiotis Dionysis Chiotis ( el, Διονύσης Χιώτης; born 4 June 1977) is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Currently, he serves as a goalkeeping coach for AEK Athens Academy. Club career AEK Athens Chiotis t ...

early into the second half of a 1–1 away draw in that season's

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 ...

, and added a further four appearances as the club reached the quarter-finals for the first time ever. In 2014–15, Pardo appeared in every group stage match in APOEL's third Champions League campaign. On 26 May 2016 both parties agreed on a two-year contract extension, with an option for a third year. On 2 September 2017, aged 34,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

Pardo joined Alki Oroklini. On 23 August 2019, he moved to Cypriot Second Division team Ermis Aradippou FC. Pardo joined

Cypriot Third Division The Cypriot Third Division (Greek: Πρωτάθλημα Γ΄ Κατηγορίας) is the third tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Each year, the top finishing teams of the league are promoted to th ...

team

for the 2020–21 season.

International career

In 2017, Pardo became a naturalized Cypriot citizen. He won his first cap on 13 November of that year at the age of 34, in a 3–2 away

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

defeat against

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

Career statistics

Honours

Olympiacos *

Superleague Greece The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

APOEL * Cypriot First Division:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17 *

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup () is the main cup competition in Cypriot football, run by the Cyprus Football Association (CFA). It began in 1934, the same season with the Cypriot Championship. It is the second most important competition for Cypriot club team ...

: 2013–14, 2014–15 * Cypriot Super Cup: 2013 Ermis Aradippou * Cypriot Second Division: 2019–20

Notes

References

External links

APOEL official profileCyprus Football Association profile
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pardo, Urko 1983 births Living people Belgian people of Spanish descent Cypriot people of Spanish descent People of Basque descent Belgian emigrants Immigrants to Cyprus Footballers from Brussels Belgian men's footballers Spanish men's footballers Cypriot men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Segunda División B players Tercera División players FC Barcelona C players FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Cartagena footballers CE Sabadell FC footballers Super League Greece players Iraklis F.C. (Thessaloniki) players Olympiacos F.C. players Liga I players FC Rapid București players Cypriot First Division players Cypriot Second Division players APOEL FC players Alki Oroklini players Ermis Aradippou FC players Cyprus men's international footballers Belgian expatriate men's footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Romania Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus