Israel David Bascón Gigato (born 16 March 1987), known simply as Israel, is a Spanish former

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

right 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. ...

. Most of his professional career, which was bothered by physical problems, was spent at Betis.

Club career

Betis

Israel was born in

Utrera Utrera () is a municipality in south-west Spain. It is in the province of Seville, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. As of 2018 it has a population of 52,617. The town is of great historical interest. It was occupied by Muslims in the 8t ...

Province of Seville The Province of Seville () is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It borders the provinces of Málaga and Cádiz in the south, Huelva in the west, Badajoz in the north and Córdoba in the ...

. A product of

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

's youth system, he made his debut for the first team 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, ...

, on 4 December 2004 (nine minutes, 1–0 away loss). During that season, he made a further seven

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 ...

appearances,El Albacete anunció el fichaje de Israel Bascón para su banda derecha (Albacete announced signing of Israel Bascón for their right wing)
La Tribuna de Albacete, 13 August 2013 (in Spanish) adding

three 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

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 ...

where he scored his first goal for the

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

ns, against

CD Mirandés Club Deportivo Mirandés is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Miranda de Ebro, Province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 3 May 1927, the club competes in the Segunda División ...

. Israel played again just eight league matches in the following campaign, all but one as a substitute. He also appeared in both European competitions, coming from the bench against

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and

R.S.C. Anderlecht Royal Sporting Club Anderlecht, commonly abbreviated to RSC Anderlecht (, , ) or RSCA (, , ), is a Belgian professional football club based in Anderlecht, Brussels Capital-Region. Anderlecht plays in the Belgian First Division A and is the mos ...

in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. During the 2006 off-season, in August, vastly underplayed due to the presence of

Joaquín Joaquín or Joaquin is a male given name, the Spanish version of Joachim. Given name * Joaquín (footballer, born 1956) (Joaquín Alonso González), Spanish football midfielder * Joaquín (footballer, born 1981) (Joaquín Sánchez Rodríguez) ...

in his position,Israel: "Ojalá sea la cantera la que suba al Betis" (Israel: "Hopefully it will be the youth system who promotes Betis")
El Correo de Andalucía, 14 October 2010 (in Spanish) Israel spent time at Chelsea on trial after a move to

Real Madrid Castilla Real Madrid Castilla Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team that plays in . It is Real Madrid's reserve team. They play their home games at the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium with a capacity of 6,000 seats. Reserve teams in Spain play in the ...

failed to materialise. Nothing came of it, however, and he then left for

Mérida UD Mérida Unión Deportiva was a Spanish football club based in Mérida, in the autonomous community of Extremadura. Founded in 1990, they last played in Tercera División – Group 14 when dissolved in 2013, and hosted games at the Estadio Roma ...

on a loan deal.El ex bético Israel, en el punto de mira para la banda derecha (Former Betis man Israel, a strong possibility for the right wing)
Diario de Jerez, 24 June 2011 (in Spanish) Shortly after, Israel was involved a serious car accident where he broke a

collar bone The clavicle, collarbone, or keybone is a slender, S-shaped long bone approximately long that serves as a strut between the shoulder blade and the sternum (breastbone). There are two clavicles, one on each side of the body. The clavicle is the ...

and suffered several contusions. He returned to Betis afterwards, being registered by their reserves in the

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 ...

. Israel scored his second competitive goal for Betis on 19 September 2010, heading from a

Miguel Lopes Hugo Miguel Almeida Costa Lopes (born 19 December 1986) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Primeira Liga club Estrela da Amadora. During his career, he played for each of the Big Three of Portuguese football ...

cross past

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 ...

Jacobo Jacobo is both a surname and a given name of Spanish origin. Based on the name Jacob. Notable people with the name include: Surname: * Alfredo Jacobo (born 1982), Olympic breaststroke swimmer from Mexico * Cesar Chavez Jacobo, Dominican professio ...

in a 2–1 home win. He contributed 21 games – only four starts, however, in 644 minutes of action – during the season, as the club returned to the top flight after two years out.

Xerez

In the following seasons, Israel continued to compete 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 ...

, with

Xerez CD Xerez Club Deportivo S. A. D. is a Spanish association football, football club based in the city of Jerez de la Frontera. It was founded in 1947 and plays in . History Due to the link between Jerez de la Frontera and the United Kingdom created b ...

. On 11 February 2013, he joined

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 ...

side Veria F.C. on loan until June.

Albacete

On 13 August 2013, Israel signed a one-year contract with third-tier

Albacete Balompié Albacete Balompié is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Albacete, in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Founded on 5 July 1939, it currently plays in Segunda División, the second tier of Spanish foo ...

. In November 2016, after undergoing three knee surgeries in only two years, the 29-year-old retired from football.

Honours

Betis *

: 2004–05 *

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

El Betis se proclama campeón (Betis are crowned champions)
El Mundo, 4 June 2011 (in Spanish)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Israel Bascon 1987 births Living people Sportspeople from Utrera 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Province of Seville Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Betis players Mérida UD footballers Betis Deportivo Balompié footballers Xerez CD footballers Albacete Balompié players Veria F.C. players Spain men's youth international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece