Daniel 'Dani' Hernández Santos (born 21 October 1985) is a Venezuelan 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 lea ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Club career

Early career

Born in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

, Hernández played Spanish lower league and amateur football until the age of 25, competing mainly in the

Community of Madrid The Community of Madrid (; ) is one of the seventeen autonomous communities and 50 provinces of Spain, provinces of Spain. It is located at the heart of the Iberian Peninsula and Meseta Central, Central Plateau (); its capital and largest munici ...

. During that time, he represented

CF Rayo Majadahonda Club de Fútbol Rayo Majadahonda () is a Spanish professional football club in Majadahonda, in the autonomous community of Madrid. Founded in 1976 it plays in , holding home games at '' Estadio Cerro del Espino'', with a capacity of 3,800 seats. ...

CD Guadalajara Club Deportivo Guadalajara S.A de C.V. (;), nicknamed ''"Chivas"'' () and simply known as Guadalajara or internationally as Chivas de Guadalajara, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in the Guadalajara metropolit ...

, CU Collado Villalba,

Real Madrid C Real Madrid Club de Fútbol C, commonly known as Real Madrid C, is a Spanish association football team, and is Real Madrid's second reserve team. They play in , holding their home games at La Ciudad del Real Madrid in Valdebebas outside the cit ...

, Rayo Vallecano B,

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 ...

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 , holding home games at '' Ciud ...

and

Real Murcia CF 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 ...

, delivering a ''

Player of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

'' performance on 26 October 2010 in a 0–0 home draw against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

in the

round of 32 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

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 ...

(5–1 aggregate loss). Additionally, he represented

SD Huesca Sociedad Deportiva Huesca, S.A.D., is a Spanish football club based in Huesca, in the autonomous community of Aragon. Founded in 1910, the club competes in the Segunda División, having played in the Spanish top division for the first time in th ...

in the

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 ...

in the first part of the 2009–10 campaign, but his input consisted of two domestic cup appearances.

Valladolid

On 19 August 2011, Hernández signed a 1+2 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 ...

in division two. He spent the vast majority of his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

as understudy to

Jaime Jaime is a common Spanish and Portuguese male given name for Jacob (name), James (name), Jamie, or Jacques. In Occitania Jacobus became ''Jacome'' and later ''Jacme''. In east Spain, ''Jacme'' became ''Jaime'', in Aragon it became ''Chaime'', and i ...

but, due to injury to his teammate, excelled in the

promotion playoffs Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

as the team returned 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 ...

after a two-year absence, conceding only once in four appearances and three starts. Hernández continued to be first choice in the 2012–13 season, helping the

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

side retain their league status after ranking in 14th position. After a one-year loan in the

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 ...

with Asteras Tripolis FC, he acted as backup to Javi Varas.

Tenerife

On 15 January 2015,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

Hernández joined second-tier

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1922, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez L� ...

on a short-term deal. In May 2018, he became the club's third goalkeeper with the most matches in Spanish competitions, at 138. Hernández subsequently played second-fiddle to Juan Soriano.

Fuenlabrada

On 14 July 2022, the 36-year-old Hernández signed a two-year contract 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 ...

, recently relegated to the

Primera Federación The Primera Federación, officially the Primera Federación Versus e-Learning for sponsorship reasons (formerly known as Primera RFEF). is the third tier of the Spanish football league system beginning with the 2021–22 season. It is administe ...

International career

Hernández made his debut for

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

on 7 September 2010, in a 1–0 friendly win with

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. As a backup, he was part of the squad that appeared at the

2011 Copa América The 2011 Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América, better known as the 2011 Copa América or the Copa América 2011 Argentina, was the 43rd edition of the Copa América, the main international association football, football tournament for national ...

in Argentina.

Personal life

Hernández's older brother, Jonay, was also a footballer. A defender, he too spent most of his professional career in Spain, also appearing for the Venezuela national team.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hernandez, Dani 1985 births Living people Venezuelan people of Spanish descent 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Venezuelan men's footballers Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Caracas Men's association football goalkeepers La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Primera Federación players CF Rayo Majadahonda players CD Guadalajara (Spain) footballers CU Collado Villalba players Real Madrid C footballers Rayo Vallecano B players Rayo Vallecano players Real Jaén footballers SD Huesca footballers Valencia CF Mestalla footballers Real Murcia CF players Real Valladolid players CD Tenerife players CF Fuenlabrada footballers Super League Greece players Asteras Tripolis F.C. players Venezuela men's international footballers 2011 Copa América players 2015 Copa América players Copa América Centenario players Venezuelan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Greece