Víctor Manuel Fernández Gutiérrez (born 17 April 1974), known simply as Víctor, is a Spanish former professional footballer. Usually a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

, he could also be put to use behind a sole attacker. Over 18 seasons, he appeared in 561 matches across both major levels of Spanish football, scoring 167 goals (342 games and 93 goals in La Liga). He played nine years with Valladolid (two spells), and four with Villarreal.

Playing career

Club

Víctor was born in Mérida, Extremadura. A product of

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 ...

' youth system, he made his senior debut with

Real Madrid Castilla Real Madrid Castilla Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team that plays in Primera Federación – Group 1 for the 2022–23 season. It is Real Madrid's reserve team. They play their home games at the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium with a cap ...

, and first appeared in La Liga with CD Tenerife, having little success in a one-and-a-half season stint. Towards the end of the second year, he played with CD Toledo 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 ...

. In 1996–97, Víctor joined Real Valladolid, scoring 16 top-flight goals in his debut campaign to help the club to rank seventh, then spent another four years with Villarreal CF, where he was also a regular fixture (totalling 28 goals in his first two seasons). On 5 June 2000, the latter signed him to a seven-year contract worth 1.4 million pesetas over the next seven years. In summer 2004, Víctor was deemed surplus to requirements at Villarreal and rejoined Valladolid, teaming up with centre-forward Joseba Llorente for three years and netting nine goals to help the side to retain their top-tier status in

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; ...

. In July 2009, after having once again helped the

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 ...

team to avoid relegation – 29 games, five goals, 1,956 minutes– Víctor, aged 35, was not offered a new contract and left. The following week, he penned a one-year deal with FC Cartagena, recently promoted to division two. Víctor scored nine league goals for the Murcian side in his first season, improving to 12 in the following as they consecutively managed to stay afloat. In July 2011, the 37-year-old returned to first club Leganés who competed in the

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 ...

, signing for one year.

International

Víctor played one match for Spain, coming on for Luis Enrique in a 0–0

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 * ...

draw with Croatia in Split, on 23 February 2000.

Coaching career

In April 2012, Víctor retired to become Leganés' manager until the end of the campaign. With three wins and a draw, he saved them from relegation to Tercera División. On 29 June 2015, Víctor returned to third-tier management at his former club Cartagena. His two-year contract ended with his dismissal on 1 February 2016, after seven games without a win.

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 ...

Valladolid *

: 2006–07

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Victor 1974 births Living people People from Mérida, Spain Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Province of Badajoz Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Madrid C footballers Real Madrid Castilla footballers CD Tenerife players CD Toledo players Real Valladolid players Villarreal CF players FC Cartagena footballers CD Leganés players Spain men's international footballers Spanish football managers Segunda División B managers CD Leganés managers FC Cartagena managers