Javier Espinosa González (born 19 September 1992) is a Spanish 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 ...

who plays for Cypriot club AEK Larnaca FC as a

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Barcelona B

Born in

Talavera de la Reina Talavera de la Reina () is a city and municipality of Spain, part of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Its population of 83,303 makes it the second most populated municipality of the province of Toledo and the fourth largest in the ...

, Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Espinosa moved to

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. Found ...

's youth system,

La Masia La Masia de Can Planes, usually shortened to La Masia (; en, "The Farmhouse"), is a term used for FC Barcelona's youth academy. The academy includes more than 300 young players. It has been an instrumental factor in Barcelona's European success ...

, at the age of 13. On 1 May 2010, whilst still a junior, he made his senior debut with the B team, playing the second half in a 2–1 home win against

Valencia CF Mestalla Valencia Club de Fútbol Mestalla, shortened to Valencia Mestalla, is the reserve team of Valencia CF, a Spanish football club based in Valencia, in the namesake community. Founded in 1944, and currently plays in Segunda Federación – Group ...

in the Segunda División B. On 26 February of the following year, after replacing fellow youth graduate Albert Dalmau, he contributed one goal to a 6–4 Segunda División away victory over

CD Numancia Club Deportivo Numancia de Soria, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club in Soria, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 April 1945, it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding home games at ''Nuevo Estadio Los ...

. Espinosa became a regular fixture under new manager

Eusebio Sacristán Eusebio Sacristán Mena (; born 13 April 1964), known simply as Eusebio in his playing days, is a Spanish professional football manager and former player who played as a central midfielder. He had a 20-year playing career, which started and e ...

. He scored five times in 27 games in the 2012–13 season, again spent in the second tier, and continued to appear regularly the following campaign, netting a career-best seven goals as ''Barça B'' finished third.

Villarreal

On 11 July 2014, Espinosa signed a three-year contract with

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or simply Villarreal, is a professional football club based in Villarreal, in the Castellón province of eastern Spain, ...

. He made his debut in

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' ...

on 24 August, replacing Cani in the 63rd minute of a 2–0 away defeat of Levante UD. Espinosa scored his first goal in the top flight on 21 September, his team's first in a 4–2 home win over

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. Rayo was founded on 29 May 1924, and currently compete in La Li ...

. On 9 January 2015, he was loaned to fellow league side

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 ...

until June. On 28 August 2015, Espinosa joined

Elche CF Elche Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Elx Club de Futbol, S.A.D.) is a professional football based in Elche, Province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded in 1923, the club competes in La Liga, holding home matches at ''Es ...

of the second division, 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 loan deal.

Levante

On 19 July 2016, after cutting ties with Villarreal, Espinosa signed a two-year deal with Levante, recently relegated to division two. After helping achieve promotion at the first attempt, he extended his link until 2019 and was immediately loaned to

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. (), known simply as Granada, is a Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that plays in the Segunda División, after being relegated from La Liga in the 2021� ...

for one year. Espinosa terminated his contract with the

Valencian Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance language also known as Catal ...

club on 30 August 2018.

Twente

On 31 August 2018, Espinosa moved abroad for the first time in his career, signing for

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedese ...

. He made his debut in the Dutch

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as t ...

on 8 September, starting in a 1–2 home loss against

TOP Oss TOP Oss (), is a professional association football club based in the town of Oss, North Brabant, Netherlands, that competes in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of the Dutch football league system. Founded in 1928 as T.O.P., a Dutch abbreviati ...

Later career

On 1 February 2021, after nearly a year of inactivity, Espinosa signed a short-term deal with

CF Fuenlabrada Club de Fútbol Fuenlabrada, S.A.D. is a football club based in Fuenlabrada, Community of Madrid, Spain, that currently competes in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, the third tier of the Spanish league system. It was founded in 1975. It holds ...

back in his country's second tier. In the ensuing summer, he agreed to a two-year contract at AEK Larnaca FC of the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

Club statistics

Honours

Levante * Segunda División: 2016–17 Twente *

: 2018–19 Spain U17 *

FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fédération ...

third place: 2009

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Espinosa, Javier 1992 births Living people People from Talavera de la Reina Footballers from the Province of Toledo Spanish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players FC Barcelona Atlètic players Villarreal CF players UD Almería players Elche CF players Levante UD footballers Granada CF footballers CF Fuenlabrada footballers Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players FC Twente players Cypriot First Division players AEK Larnaca FC players Kings League players Spain men's youth international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus