Francesc Xavier 'Xavi' Roca Mateo (born 19 January 1974) is a Spanish retired

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 right-back.

Club career

Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Roca joined FC Barcelona's academy at 16. He spent three professional seasons as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of their reserves 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 ...

, and his input with the first team consisted of 90 minutes in La Liga in a 2–2 away draw against Deportivo de La Coruña on 26 May 1996; additionally, for two consecutive years, he was loaned to

CD Logroñés Club Deportivo Logroñés, S.A.D. was a Spanish football team based in Logroño, in the autonomous community of La Rioja. Founded in 1940, it last played in ''Regional Preferente de La Rioja''. Due to financial problems, since 2009 the club has ...

and CD Toledo in the second division. Released in summer 1999, Roca remained in the second tier with Villarreal CF. He was first-choice in his first season as the club returned to the top flight after one year, then totalled 50 games over the next two as they managed to stay afloat. Roca signed a two-year contract with top-division RCD Espanyol on 24 May 2002. He left after only one and two competitive appearances, returning to division two with Rayo Vallecano on a three-year deal. Before retiring at the age of 36, Roca competed in the lower leagues and his native region, with CE L'Hospitalet, CE Sabadell FC and CE Europa. He also spent one year in the

New Zealand Football Championship The New Zealand Football Championship ( mi, Te Whakataetae Whutupaoro a Aotearoa) was a men's association football league at the top of the New Zealand league system. Founded in 2004, the New Zealand Football Championship was the successor to a m ...

with Auckland City FC, where he suffered a serious knee injury in his debut. Subsequently, Roca worked as

sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

at Sabadell,

AEK Larnaca FC AEK Larnaca FC ( el, AEK; for short Αθλητική Έvωση Κίτιον Λάρνακας , translit=''Athletiki Enosi Kition Larnakas'', "Athletic Union Kition of Larnaca") is a Cypriot professional football club based in Larnaca. The club ...

( Cypriot First Division) and Panathinaikos FC (

Super League 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 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roca, Xavi 1974 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Barcelona Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players FC Barcelona C players FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Barcelona players CD Logroñés footballers CD Toledo players Villarreal CF players RCD Espanyol footballers Rayo Vallecano players CE L'Hospitalet players CE Sabadell FC footballers CE Europa footballers New Zealand Football Championship players Auckland City FC players Spain youth international footballers Spain under-21 international footballers Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate association footballers in New Zealand Spanish expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece