Daniel 'Dani' García Carrillo (born 24 May 1990) 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 lea ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

club

Olympiacos Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...

. He spent the vast majority of his professional career with

Eibar Eibar (, ) is a city and municipality within the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi. It is the capital of the '' eskualde / comarca'' of Debabarrena. Eibar has 27,138 inhabitants ( Eustat, 2018). Its chief industry is ...

since joining in 2012 (initially on loan), representing the club in all three major levels of Spanish football and playing 224 competitive matches. In 2018, he signed with

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

, where he made 195 appearances and won the

2023–24 Copa del Rey The 2023–24 Copa del Rey was the 122nd edition of the Copa del Rey (including two seasons where two rival editions were played). The winners were assured a place in the 2024–25 UEFA Europa League league phase. Both the winners and the runners ...

and the

2021 Supercopa de España The 2021 Supercopa de España was the 37th edition of the Supercopa de España, an annual football competition for clubs in the Spanish football league system that were successful in its major competitions in the preceding season. It was the seco ...

Club career

Early career

Born in Zumarraga,

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

, Basque Country, García started his career in the ''

cantera Cantera, literally meaning "quarry" in Spanish, is a term used in Spain to refer to youth academies and farm teams organized by sports clubs. It is also used to refer to the geographical area that clubs recruit players from. The term is widely ...

'' of

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, ...

, and made his senior debut with Alicante CF B in 2009–10. He was promoted to the latter's first team later that year, but suffered relegation from

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

in his second season. On 24 June 2011, García joined

Getafe CF B Getafe Club de Fútbol "B" is the reserve team of Getafe CF, club based in Getafe, Madrid metropolitan area, in the namesake community. Founded in 1983, it currently plays in holding home games at '' Ciudad Deportiva Getafe CF''. History Getafe ...

in the same league.

Eibar

García signed with Real Sociedad in July 2012, being immediately loaned back to the third tier to play for

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in ) is a Spanish football league teams, Spanish professional football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the men’s te ...

. He finished his debut campaign with 41 league appearances to his credit, helping the side to promote in the playoffs. In July 2013, García's loan to Eibar was renewed, and he made his

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

debut on 18 August, starting in a 2–1 away win against

Real Jaén Real Jaén Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Jaén, Spain, Jaén, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1929 it plays in , holding home matches at ''Nuevo Estadio de La Vict ...

. On 26 June 2014 he signed permanently with the ''Armeros'', promoted 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 ...

for the first time ever. García made his debut in the Spanish top flight on 24 August 2014, starting in a 1–0 home victory over former employers Real Sociedad. He scored his first goal in the competition on 19 September, opening the 2–0 away defeat of

Elche CF Elche Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional football club based in Elche, Province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community, Spain. Founded in 1923, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025–26 season, holding home matches at ...

. On 17 November 2015, García renewed his contract with Eibar until 2018. In April 2017, having only missed nine league games since their promotion, he became the first player to reach the milestone of 100 top-division appearances for the club; in October of the same year, he became only their twelfth player to play 200 matches.

Athletic Bilbao

On 3 June 2018,

announced that García had signed a four-year contract after the transfer was agreed in March.

Ander Capa Ander Capa Rodríguez (born 8 February 1992) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a right-back or a winger for Club Portugalete. He played mainly with Eibar during his career, representing the club in three levels of Spanish fo ...

made the same move; within weeks they were joined by another former teammate

Yuri Berchiche Yuri Berchiche Izeta (born 10 February 1990) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a left-back for La Liga club Athletic Bilbao. He began his senior career at Tottenham Hotspur without making a first-team appearance, being loaned t ...

, and before the end of the calendar year by the coach from their Eibar promotion seasons,

Gaizka Garitano Gaizka Garitano Aguirre (born 9 July 1975) is a Spanish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a midfielder, currently Manager (association football), manager of Cádiz CF, Cádiz. Over 11 seasons as a player, he am ...

. He totalled 32 appearances in his first season, his 29 in the league being all starts. García scored his first goal for Athletic – 203 games after his last career one – on 6 October 2023, in the 3–0 home defeat of

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, 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 ...

. In May 2024, with 195 matches to his credit (two in the

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

which the Lions won), he announced he would be leaving.

Olympiacos

On 5 July 2024, upon the expiry of his contract, the 34-year-old García joined

club

Olympiacos FC Olympiacos Football Club ( ), known simply as Olympiacos or Olympiacos Piraeus, is a Greek professional football club based in Piraeus. Part of the major multi-sport club Olympiacos CFP (''Olympiakós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós'', "Olymp ...

, reuniting with his former Eibar manager

José Luis Mendilibar José Luis Mendilibar Etxebarria (born 14 March 1961) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder, currently manager of Super League Greece club Olympiacos. He played no higher than Segunda División, making 290 appea ...

. He won a

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

in 2024–25, and subsequently agreed to another one-year deal.

Career statistics

Honours

Eibar *

: 2013–14 Athletic Bilbao *

: 2023–24; runner-up: 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Football in Spain, Spanish football. Founded in 1982 Supercopa de España, 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2 ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Olympiacos *

: 2024–25 *

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 ...

: 2024–25

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Dani 1990 births Living people People from Zumarraga, Spain Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Gipuzkoa Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Alicante CF footballers Getafe CF B players Real Sociedad footballers SD Eibar footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers Super League Greece players Olympiacos F.C. players Basque Country men's international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece 21st-century Spanish sportsmen