Joseba Zaldúa Bengoetxea (born 24 June 1992) 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-back 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 ...

for

Cádiz CF Cádiz Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a Spanish professional football club based in Cádiz, Andalusia. Founded in 1910, the club competes in Segunda División, holding home games at Nuevo Mirandilla, with a seating capacity of 20,724. Salvadoran ...

Club career

Real Sociedad

Born in

San Sebastián San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (, ), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border ...

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

, Zaldúa played his youth football with local

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, ...

. He made his senior debut with the reserves, spending several seasons 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 ...

with them. Zaldúa appeared in his first official match with the main squad on 23 November 2013, featuring the first 80 minutes before being

substituted Substitution may refer to: Arts and media *Substitution (poetry), a variation in poetic scansion *Substitution (theatre), an acting methodology Music *Chord substitution, swapping one chord for a related one within a chord progression *Tritone ...

for

Javi Ros Javier "Javi" Ros Añón (born 16 February 1990) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He totalled 203 games and 18 goals in the Segunda División over nine seasons, representing mainly Real Zaragoza (160 compe ...

in a 4–3

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 ...

home win against

RC Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta Vigo, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), the club was fou ...

. Roughly a month later, he signed a new deal with the

Basques The Basques ( or ; ; ; ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a Basque culture, common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous peoples, ...

until 2016. On 20 May 2014, Zaldúa renewed his contract with the ''Txuri-urdin'' until 2018, and was definitely promoted to the first team. On 4 July 2017, he was loaned to fellow top-flight club

CD Leganés Club Deportivo Leganés, S.A.D. is a professional football club based in Leganés, Community of Madrid. They currently compete in La Liga, the first tier of the Spanish league system. Leganés was officially founded 23 June 1928 and played thei ...

for one year. He made 30 appearances as the side from the outskirts of

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

avoided

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

, and scored a last-minute equaliser in a 2–2 draw at

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually known as Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Basque ...

on 21 January 2018. On 7 May, he was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

in a 3–0 home loss to

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 6 September 1909, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025– ...

for denying José Luis Morales a goalscoring opportunity. Zaldúa scored his only goal for Real Sociedad on 12 May 2019 in a 3–1 victory over

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 ...

Anoeta Stadium Anoeta Stadium (), currently known as the Reale Arena for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium in San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain that was inaugurated in 1993. The stadium lies at the Anoeta Sports Complex, and is mostly used for ...

, but was replaced in the same game with a broken left leg. He totalled 190 matches during his spell.

Cádiz

On 11 July 2022, Zaldúa joined

on a three-year contract. He spent the vast majority of his first season on the sidelines, nursing a serious knee injury.

Career statistics

Honours

Real Sociedad *

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 ...

: 2019–20

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zaldua, Joseba 1992 births Living people 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from San Sebastián Men's association football fullbacks La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Sociedad B footballers Real Sociedad footballers CD Leganés players Cádiz CF players Basque Country men's international footballers