César Arzo Amposta (; born 21 January 1986) 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 lea ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

Club career

Arzo was born in

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

Valencian Community The Valencian Community is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wit ...

. He came through the ranks of hometown club

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D., usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Villarreal, in the Province of Castellón, Castellón province of easte ...

, making his debut for the first team on 23 March 2003 against

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

but never being able to consolidate himself in the starting XI, however.César Arzo, de sus dos etapas en el Decano a ser un baluarte del Gent belga (César Arzo, from his two spells with the Dean to become a stalwart of Belgium's Gent)
Huelva 24, 21 January 2013 (in Spanish) In the 2006–07 season, Arzo was loaned to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

newcomers

Recreativo de Huelva Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Huelva, Andalucia, Spain. Founded on 23 December 1889, they are the oldest football club in Spain, and currently play in , holding home ...

alongside teammates Javier López Vallejo and

Santi Cazorla Santiago Cazorla González (; born 13 December 1984) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Segunda División club Oviedo. A former Spanish international, Cazorla operates primarily as an attacking midfielder, but also plays as a ...

, moving on loan for the following campaign to another promotee,

Real Murcia Real Murcia Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., commonly known as Real Murcia (, "Royal Murcia"), is a Spanish football club based in Murcia, in the Región de Murcia. Founded in 1919, it currently plays in , playing home matches at Estadio Nueva Condo ...

. Immediately after returning from his latter loan he was deemed surplus to requirements by Villarreal boss

Manuel Pellegrini Manuel Luis Pellegrini Ripamonti (; ; born 16 September 1953) is a Chilean professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the head coach of Real Betis. As a coach, he has managed clubs in S ...

, rejoining, now definitely, Recreativo on a free transfer. Arzo returned to Villarreal in July 2009, as the club retained an option to buy back from Huelva. However, he was immediately sold, signing a four-year contract with

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid (), is a Spanish professional List of football clubs in Spain, football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León that will compete from the 2025–26 season in the . The club ...

as well as former Villarreal teammate

Marcos Marcos may refer to: People with the given name ''Marcos'' *Marcos (given name) * Marcos family Sports ;Surnamed * Dayton Marcos, Negro league baseball team from Dayton, Ohio (early twentieth-century) * Dimitris Markos, Greek footballer * Né ...

. In summer 2011, aged 25, Arzo moved abroad, going on to represent in the following years K.A.A. Gent (Belgium),

Beitar Jerusalem FC Beitar Jerusalem Football Club (), commonly known as Beitar Jerusalem () or simply Beitar (), is an Israeli professional association football, football club based in the city of Jerusalem, that plays in the Israeli Premier League, the top tie ...

(Israel) and

AEK Athens FC A.E.K. Football Club (), known simply as A.E.K. (; ) in Greece and AEK Athens internationally, is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica, Greece. Established in Athens by Greek refugees from Constantinople in the ...

(Greece). This was interspersed with a five-month spell back in his country, with

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

. On 5 July 2016, Arzo signed a two-year contract with

Kazakhstan Premier League The Kazakhstan Professional Football League (, ''Qazaqstan Premier Ligasy''), commonly referred to as the Kazakh Premier League or simply the Premier League, is a professional association football league in Kazakhstan and the highest level of the ...

side

FC Kairat Football Club Kairat () is a professional football club based in Almaty, which plays in the Kazakhstan Premier League, the highest level of Kazakh football. Founded in 1954 as Lokomotiv Alma-Ata, they became Urozhay in 1955 and Kairat in 1956. ...

. He left by mutual agreement on 21 November 2017 and, late into the following month, he returned to his country by joining

Gimnàstic de Tarragona Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona, commonly known as Gimnàstic Tarragona or sometimes just Nàstic, is a Spanish sports club based in Tarragona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Its football team plays in . The club was founded in 1886 an ...

. Arzo suffered a

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

injury in October 2018, and subsequently retired. The following March, he joined the political party

Citizens Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationality; ...

, taking part of their candidacy for the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate of Spain, Senate. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has ...

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Club

Villarreal *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

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 60 ...

AEK *

Greek Football Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

: 2015–16 Kairat *

Kazakhstan Cup The Kazakhstan Cup is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in Kazakhstan Football (soccer), football, run by the Football Federation of Kazakhstan. The tournament was initially founded in 1936 as a competition for club ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Kazakhstan Super Cup The Kazakhstan Super Cup (, ''Qazaqstan Sýperkýbogy'') is a one-match football (soccer), football annual competition. The two participating clubs are the Kazakhstan Premier League champion and the Kazakhstan Cup winner. If these two competitions ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arzo, Cesar 1986 births Living people Footballers from Villarreal Spanish men's footballers Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol players Villarreal CF B players Villarreal CF players Recreativo de Huelva players Real Murcia CF players Real Valladolid players Real Zaragoza players Gimnàstic de Tarragona footballers Belgian Pro League players K.A.A. Gent players Israeli Premier League players Beitar Jerusalem F.C. players Super League Greece players AEK Athens F.C. players Kazakhstan Premier League players FC Kairat players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Kazakhstan Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Israel Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan 21st-century Spanish sportsmen