Iñaki Astiz Ventura (born 5 November 1983) 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 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 ...

, currently assistant manager of

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

club

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning a record 15 champions titles, a record 2 ...

. Formed at

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Pamplona, Navarre. It was founded on 24 October 1920 and plays in La Liga, the top division of Spanish ...

, he spent most of his career at

, appearing in 273 competitive matches and winning several titles. He also played in the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

with APOEL.

Playing career

A product of local

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club based in Pamplona, Navarre. It was founded on 24 October 1920 and plays in La Liga, the top division of Spanish football. The team's ...

's youth system, Astiz was born in

Pamplona Pamplona (; ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Navarre, Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. Lying at near above sea level, the city (and the wider Cuenca de Pamplona) is located on the flood pl ...

Navarre Navarre ( ; ; ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre, is a landlocked foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Autonomous Community, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and New Aquitaine in France. ...

, and his earlier career was spent with their reserves where he met

Jan Urban Jan Urban (; born 14 May 1962) is a Polish professional football manager and former player who played as a striker. He was most recently in charge of Ekstraklasa club Górnik Zabrze. His professional career was closely associated to Górnik Za ...

, a former club player who was their manager at the time. Thus, he was loaned for the 2007–08 season to

(where Urban would work as coach) in the

, becoming the first Spaniard ever to play in that competition. Astiz returned to Osasuna in June 2008, only to rejoin Legia immediately for five years despite still having a contract running. The former, however, retained the possibility to re-buy the player after the first two seasons. On 21 June 2015, Astiz signed a two-year deal with

APOEL FC APOEL FC (; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") is a Cypriot professio ...

in the

. He made his competitive debut on 14 July, in a 0–0 home draw against

FK Vardar FK Vardar () is a professional Association football, football club based in Skopje, North Macedonia, which competes in the Macedonian First Football League, Macedonian First League. They are the most successful football club in Football in Maced ...

in the

second qualifying round The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

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 ...

. He scored his first goal for his new team on 12 December 2016, the second in the 2–1 home win over

Anorthosis Famagusta FC Anorthosis Famagusta (), commonly known as Anorthosis in English or Anorthosi in Greek, is a Cypriot football club, part of the Famagusta multi-sport club founded in 1911 in Varosha, Famagusta.

in the domestic league. On 15 August 2017, the 33-year-old Astiz returned to Legia Warsaw. He scored his only goal in the Champions League on 31 July 2018, the only in a victory at

FC Spartak Trnava FC Spartak Trnava () is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Trnava, Slovakia. The club competes in Slovak First Football League, the top flight in the Football in Slovakia#System, Slovak league system, hav ...

in the

that amounted to nothing as his side had lost 2–0 in the first leg. In June 2020, he agreed to a one-year extension at the

Stadion Wojska Polskiego The Polish Armed Forces, Polish Army Stadium (, ), official named the Marshall Józef Piłsudski Legia Warsaw Stadium (), is an all-seater stadium, all-seater, UEFA stadium categories, highest fourth category football-specific stadium located at 3 ...

. Astiz joined their

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

in the

III liga III liga (Trzecia liga), currently named Betclic III liga due to its sponsorship by Betclic, is a Polish football league that sits in the fourth tier of the Polish football league system. Until the end of the 2007–08 season, III liga ref ...

in July 2021. He retired shortly after, aged 38; over his two spells, he won four national championships and five

Polish Cup The Polish Cup in Association football, football ( ) is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition for Polish football club (association football), football clubs, held continuously since 1950, and is the second most i ...

Coaching career

On 25 October 2021, Legia II head coach Marek Gołębiewski was promoted to first-team manager, and Astiz joined his staff as an assistant. Following the former's dismissal, he kept his role under

Aleksandar Vuković Aleksandar Vuković ( sr-cyrl, Александар Вуковић, ; born 25 August 1979) is a Serbian professional football manager and former player who currently manages Polish Ekstraklasa club Piast Gliwice. Club career He started his car ...

, Kosta Runjaić and Gonçalo Feio.

Career statistics

Honours

Legia Warsaw *

2012–13 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 ...

, 2013–14, 2017–18, 2019–20 *

: 2007–08, 2011–12,

, 2014–15, 2017–18 APOEL *

: 2015–16, 2016–17

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Astiz, Inaki 1983 births Living people 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Pamplona Men's association football central defenders Segunda División B players CA Osasuna B players Ekstraklasa players III liga players Legia Warsaw players Legia Warsaw II players Cypriot First Division players APOEL FC players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Poland Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Legia Warsaw non-playing staff