Ustaritz Aldekoaotalora Astarloa (born 16 February 1983), known simply as Ustaritz, 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 ...

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 ...

. Most of his professional career was spent with Athletic Bilbao, for which he appeared in 103 official matches during seven years. In 2013, he won the double with

Dinamo Tbilisi Dinamo Tbilisi is a sports club from Tbilisi, Georgia. It was founded in 1925. Among its highest honors, is the European trophy earned by its football team which won the Cup Winners' Cup in 1981, beating FC Carl Zeiss Jena of East Germany 2–1 ...

in Georgia.

Club career

Athletic Bilbao

Born in

Abadiño Abadiño ( eu, Abadiño; es, Abadiano) is a town located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, in the north of Spain, about 35 km from the provincial capital of Bilbao. The area of the municipality is abo ...

Biscay Biscay (; eu, Bizkaia ; es, Vizcaya ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilbao. B ...

Lezama Lezama is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain. It is home to the training headquarters of the football team Athletic Bilbao, and is accessible by bus - Bizkai ...

graduate Ustaritz made his debut with Athletic Bilbao's first team during the 2005–06 season, taking part in 17

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' ...

matches that year. However, he found starting chances in

hard to come in the subsequent years, being mainly restricted to appearances in 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 footb ...

and the

UEFA Cup 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 ...

– in 2007–08 he played a career-best 20 games, but the Basques could only rank in 11th place. From

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

to 2011, Ustaritz made a combined 36 league appearances, scoring his first competitive goal for the club on 29 November 2009 in a 4–1 away win against

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as ''Almería Club de Fútbol'' until 2001, when it was renamed ''Unión D ...

. In mid-August 2011, he was loaned to fellow league team

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 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 ...

-long move. Ustaritz's contract with Athletic was terminated by mutual consent on 31 August 2012.

Later years

In February 2013, the 30-year-old Ustaritz moved abroad for the first time, signing with

FC Dinamo Tbilisi FC Dinamo Tbilisi ( ka, დინამო თბილისი, ) is a Georgian professional football club based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that competes in the Erovnuli Liga, the top flight of Georgian football. Dinamo Tbilisi was one of the mos ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and sharing teams with several compatriots. He played six games over the remainder of the season as his team won the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

, scoring in a 6–1 victory over

FC Zestafoni Football Club Zestafoni is a Georgian football club based in Zestafoni. They play their home games at David Abashidze Stadium. Zestafoni was founded on 18 June 2004 by the initiative of the shareholders of JSC Giorgi Nikoladze Zestafoni Ferro ...

in the last fixture on 18 May. Four days later, a

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

was secured with a 3–1 defeat of FC Chikhura Sachkhere in the

Georgian Cup The Georgian Cup (, ''Sakartvelos tasi'') is the main cup competition in Georgia (country), Georgian football (soccer), football. The competition is a knockout (single elimination) tournament. Soviet era cup winners Previous winners are: * 194 ...

final, with the player being dismissed late on. Ustaritz recorded two goals in four games in Dinamo's unsuccessful qualification campaign for 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 competi ...

in the summer. On 30 January 2014 he returned to the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...

, signing an eighteen-month deal at Primeira Liga club F.C. Arouca. Roughly one year later, after only two appearances – totalling less than five minutes playing time – he switched to another side in the same division, F.C. Penafiel.

Honours

Dinamo Tbilisi *

Georgian Premier League The Erovnuli Liga ( ka, ეროვნული ლიგა - lit. National League) is the top division of professional football in Georgia. Since 1990, it has been organized by the Professional Football League of Georgia and Georgian Football ...

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 ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aldekoaotalora, Ustaritz 1983 births Living people People from Abadiño Spanish footballers Footballers from the Basque Country (autonomous community) Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División B players Tercera División players CD Basconia footballers Bilbao Athletic footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers Real Betis players Erovnuli Liga players FC Dinamo Tbilisi players Primeira Liga players F.C. Arouca players F.C. Penafiel players Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Georgia (country) Expatriate footballers in Portugal Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Georgia (country) Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Portugal