Iñaki Muñoz Oroz (born 2 July 1978) is a Spanish retired professional footballer who played mainly as a defensive midfielder. He amassed La Liga totals of 150 matches and 11 goals over nine seasons, representing in the competition Osasuna and

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

Club career

Osasuna

Muñoz was born in Pamplona,

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

. Except for a season-long loan to CD Toledo in the

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, 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 Foot ...

he played ten senior seasons with hometown club CA Osasuna, the first and the second teams combined. He made his La Liga debut with the former on 23 December 2001, coming on as a late substitute in a 0–1 home loss against

. Muñoz went on to become an important first-team member, appearing in 30 games during 2005–06 as they finished fourth in the league and qualified for the UEFA Champions League while scoring five goals in as many wins, notably the winners at Deportivo de La Coruña and

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

. In the previous campaign's Copa del Rey, he netted five times in eight matches to help Osasuna reach the final of the competition, notably once in a 3–1 quarter-final home victory over Sevilla FC (4–3 aggregate).

Athletic Bilbao

Muñoz switched west for 2007–08, moving to Basque neighbours Athletic Bilbao on a three-year contract. He appeared sparingly in his first season, and even less in the second and

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

– his 2009–10 output consisted of 30 minutes against Deportivo in the last matchday. Muñoz scored his only competitive goal for the side on 31 January 2008, in a 3–3 home draw with Racing de Santander in the Spanish Cup quarter-finals.

Later years

In summer 2010, aged 32, free agent Muñoz signed with FC Cartagena of the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

. He retired three years later, after lower-league spells at UD Salamanca and CD Izarra.

International career

Muñoz represented both the Basque and Navarrese autonomous teams,Navarra vence con gol de Muñoz y perdona la goleada (Navarra win with goal from Muñoz and forgive routing)
Diario AS, 26 December 2005 (in Spanish) earning six caps in total.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Munoz, Inaki 1978 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Pamplona Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players CA Osasuna B players CA Osasuna players CD Toledo players Athletic Bilbao footballers FC Cartagena footballers UD Salamanca players CD Izarra footballers Spain youth international footballers Basque Country international footballers