Iñigo Lekue Martínez (; ; born 4 May 1993) 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 right or left-back for

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 ...

. Developed at Athletic Bilbao, he made over 250 appearances, winning the

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 ...

twice and also the 2023–24 Copa del Rey.

Club career

Born in

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

, Basque Country, Lekue graduated from

Danok Bat CF Danok Bat Club de Fica is a Spanish football team based in Bilbao, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1972, the club is mainly known for their successful youth setup, which helps players to develop and join other senior clu ...

's youth system. In summer 2012 he moved to

, and made his debut as a senior with the farm team in the

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

. On 21 June 2013, Lekue was promoted to the 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 ...

. On 29 June 2015, after being an ever-present figure during the side's

promotion 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 ...

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 ...

after a 19-year absence, he was promoted to the main squad in

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 ...

. Lekue made his official debut with the first team on 15 August 2015, coming on as a second-half substitute for fellow youth graduate Sabin Merino in a 4–0 home rout of

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

in the

. He made his first league appearance 15 days later, being taken off at half-time in a 2–0 loss at neighbouring SD Eibar. Lekue scored his first senior goal on 21 December 2015, equalising for the reserves in a 1–1 home draw against

CD Lugo Club Deportivo Lugo is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Lugo, in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. Founded on 8 July 1953, it plays in Primera Federación, holding home games at ''Estadio Anxo ...

. The following 3 April he scored for the first time in the top flight, opening a 1–1 draw with

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol (), known simply as Granada or ''"Graná"'', is a professional List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that currently plays in Segunda ...

at the San Mamés Stadium. On 8 June 2016, he agreed to a contract extension until 2019. On 24 November 2016, Lekue netted his first European goal to win a

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

group match 3–2 at home to US Sassuolo Calcio. In January 2018, he extended his contract to 2023. He missed most of the 2018–19 season with back issues, returning as a late substitute on 16 March in a 2–0 home win over

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

. Lekue played rarely under Gaizka Garitano, and looked for a new club in the January 2021

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

, but was reinstated by new manager Marcelino and won another Super Cup that month, again against Barcelona. That April, he was involved in two

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 ...

finals in one month, losing both to

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 Barcelona respectively; he played the latter 4–0 defeat as a half-time substitute. In 2022–23, due to injuries to Yuri Berchiche and Mikel Balenziaga, Lekue played frequently. In April, during his own recovery, he prolonged his contract to 2025.

International career

On 22 May 2016, Lekue was called up to the Spain national team by manager Vicente del Bosque, after Jonny withdrew due to "personal reasons".

Career statistics

Honours

Athletic Bilbao *

: 2023–24; runner-up: 2019–20, 2020–21 *

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

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 ...

Individual * La Liga Play of the Month: December 2023 (with Nico Williams)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lekue, Inigo 1993 births Living people 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Bilbao Men's association football fullbacks La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Danok Bat CF players CD Basconia footballers Athletic Bilbao B footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers