Rafael Alkorta Martínez (born 16 September 1968) is a Spanish former 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 played mainly 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 ...

. He is the current

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 ...

of Athletic Bilbao. Having represented Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid during a 17-year professional career, he amassed

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' ...

totals of 370 matches and eight goals, winning three trophies with the latter club. Alkorta appeared in three

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

with the Spain national team during the 1990s.

Playing career

Club

Born in

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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 ...

, Alkorta began playing as a child with local Athletic Club in 1978, and made his senior debut with the second team seven years later, making 44 Segunda División appearances before being promoted by

Howard Kendall Howard Kendall (22 May 1946 – 17 October 2015) was an English footballer and manager. Kendall joined Preston North End as an apprentice and stayed with the club when he turned professional. He was a runner-up in the 1964 FA Cup with Preston, ...

to the senior side for the 1987–88 season. His first

match was a 1–0 away defeat against

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club c ...

on 24 October 1987, and he went on to feature in a further 171 while establishing himself as an outstanding man marker. Alkorta attracted the attention of Real Madrid, for whom he signed in the 1993–94 campaign (he was reluctant to make the move, but was persuaded due to Athletic's poor financial situation which was improved by the 350 million pesetas transfer fee). During his spell at the

Santiago Bernabéu Stadium The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium ( es, Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, ) is a football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a current seating capacity of 81,044, it has been the home stadium of Real Madrid since its completion in 1947. It is the second-larg ...

he formed a notable partnership with

Fernando Hierro Fernando Ruiz Hierro (; born 23 March 1968) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a centre-back, sweeper or defensive midfielder. He is the current sporting director of Liga MX club C.D. Guadalajara. He won five L ...

for club and country, and accumulated more than 150 official appearances and two league titles. Alkorta returned to Athletic in 1997–98, swapping teams with fellow defender

Aitor Karanka Aitor Karanka de la Hoz (Basque and ; born 18 September 1973) is a Spanish football manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of Segunda División club Granada. Save for a brief spell in the United States at age 32, Karanka ...

. He helped the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

side to finish second in the first campaign upon his return and went on to play regularly the following years but, after only six games in 2001–02, was released and decided to retire aged nearly 34.

International

An international since 26 May 1990 (a 1–0 friendly away win over

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

), Alkorta earned 54

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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 ...

over the next eight years. He played in three

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

s –

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

– and

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

, also representing the country at under-16, under-18 and under-21 levels. In the first competition, in Italy, Alkorta played ten minutes in a 2–1 group stage victory against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, starting in a further 11 matches (ten complete) in the other senior tournaments.

Coaching and administrative career

Alkorta worked as an assistant manager to former Real Madrid teammate Míchel at

Olympiacos F.C. Olympiacos Club of Fans of Piraeus ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σ.Φ.Π. ), known simply as Olympiacos or Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional football club based in Piraeus, Attica. Part of the major multi-sport club Olympiacos CFP ('' ...

and Olympique de Marseille. In December 2018, following the election of

Aitor Elizegi Aitor Elizegi Alberdi (born 27 June 1966) is a Spanish entrepreneur, chef and the president of football club Athletic Bilbao from 2018 to 2022. Biography Born in 1966, in Santutxu, Bilbao, Elizegi grew up supporting Athletic Bilbao, becoming a ...

as the president of Athletic Bilbao, he was installed as the club's new

, working with Andoni Ayarza and replacing the long-serving José María Amorrortu.

Personal life

Alkorta's younger brother, Óscar, was also a footballer who was a

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 ...

. A fellow Athletic Bilbao youth graduate (alongside

José Félix Guerrero José Félix Guerrero López (born 23 August 1975) is a Spanish retired professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. Club career Guerrero was born in Portugalete, Basque Country. Brought up in Athletic Bilbao's prolific youth ra ...

who also had a more famous sibling in the first team), the younger Alkorta never made it past the reserves and played out his career in the Segunda División B. The brothers were on the staff at Athletic together for a few months in 1997, between Rafael's return from Madrid and Óscar's move to CD Aurrerá de Vitoria. Óscar later worked as a youth coach at Athletic Bilbao, working under his older sibling from 2019. Rafael's son Iker received some media attention for modelling work in 2017.

Honours

Real Madrid *

: 1994–95, 1996–97 * Supercopa de España:

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

; Runner-up

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

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alkorta, Rafael 1968 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Bilbao Association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Bilbao Athletic footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers Real Madrid CF players Spain youth international footballers Spain under-21 international footballers Spain international footballers 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players Basque Country international footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in France Athletic Bilbao non-playing staff Spanish sports executives and administrators