César Martín Villar (born 3 April 1977) is a Spanish 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 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 ...

. Over the course of 13 seasons he appeared in 200

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 ...

games, mostly in representation of

Oviedo Oviedo (; ast, Uviéu ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city. Oviedo is located ap ...

and Deportivo, after which he had a six-month spell in England with

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

. A Spanish international during five years, César appeared in

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

Club career

Born in

, César started his professional career in 1994 playing for local

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo is a Spanish football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926 as a result of the merger of two clubs who had maintained a large sporting rivalry for years in the city: ''Real Stadium Club Ovetense'' and ''Real Club De ...

. In his debut season he helped with 17

matches as the

Asturias Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in nor ...

side, which also featured Croatian

Nikola Jerkan Nikola Jerkan (born 8 December 1964) is a Croatian former footballer who played as a defender. Jerkan was born in Split and started playing football professionally for NK Zagreb. Playing career Club He started his career in youth ranks of Ju ...

in the defensive sector, finished ninth. After being instrumental in Oviedo's 1998–99 league campaign by playing 31 games and scoring four goals, César moved to

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. They currently p ...

for approximately

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7 million. With the

Galicians Galicians ( gl, galegos, es, gallegos, link=no) are a Celtic-Romance ethnic group from Spain that is closely related to the Portuguese people and has its historic homeland is Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance l ...

he won one league, 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 ...

and two

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

trophies, but appeared sparingly during his seven-year stay (maximum 20 matches in 2002–03) mainly due to injuries. César fell out of favour when

Joaquín Caparrós Joaquín de Jesús Caparrós Camino (born 15 October 1955) is a Spanish football manager. After winning the Segunda División with Sevilla in 2001, Caparrós was a regular on the La Liga sidelines for the best part of two decades. He coached ...

took over as manager of Deportivo, and eventually moved to

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 18 July 2006. Things did not improve at his new team where he only played five times all competitions comprised, also getting

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in a 3–0 league home loss to

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

; on 31 January 2007, he cancelled his contract by mutual consent. César joined

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

on a short-term contract until the end of the season, in February 2007. He made his

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 Foo ...

debut as an injury-time substitute for

Nicolas Anelka Nicolas Sébastien Anelka (; born 14 March 1979) is a French professional Manager (association football), football manager and retired Football player, player who played as a Forward (association football), forward. As a player, he regularly fe ...

on 28 April, in a 2–2 draw 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 ...

; on 18 May, after failing to feature in any more matches, it was revealed that he would leave the club after the new manager Sammy Lee decided not to extend his contract, and he subsequently returned to his homeland, signing with Hércules CF in

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 ...

. For the 2009–10 campaign, veteran César continued in the second level, agreeing to a 2+1 contract with

CD Castellón Club Deportivo Castellón, S.A.D. is a professional Spanish football team based in Castellón de la Plana, in the Valencian Community. Founded on 20 July 1922, it currently plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding home games at ''No ...

. However, after the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with ...

team's relegation, the 33-year-old was one of the many players released from contract, retiring shortly afterwards. César returned to Oviedo in summer 2015, in directorial capacities.

International career

César made his first appearance for

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

on 18 August 1999, playing the entire 2–1 friendly win over

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. He scored twice in his first two

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, both in

UEFA Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

qualifiers and both through headers. César was included in the

squad, but did not play. Despite showing early promise, his international career never fully took off, mostly because of injury troubles and the emergence of players like Carles Puyol and

Pablo Ibáñez Pablo Ibáñez Tébar (born 3 August 1981), sometimes known as just Pablo, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a centre back. Pablo was born in Madrigueras. He began his football career in the youth teams of his local p ...

; he also found the net in his last match, a 4–0 friendly victory with

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...

in the week prior to the continental competition.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Spain's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Martín goal.''

Honours

Deportivo *

: 1999–2000 *

: 2001–02 *

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

Spain U18 *

UEFA European Under-18 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply UEFA Under-19 Championship or the UEFA Euro U-19, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain and England ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Cesar 1977 births Living people Footballers from Oviedo Spanish footballers Men's association football defenders Spain men's international footballers Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers UEFA Euro 2004 players La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Oviedo Vetusta players Real Oviedo players Deportivo de La Coruña players Levante UD footballers Hércules CF players CD Castellón footballers Premier League players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in England Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England Spanish football managers Real Oviedo non-playing staff