José Antonio Pikabea Larrarte (born 26 September 1970), also known as Kote, 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

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 ...

Club career

Born in

Hondarribia Hondarribia (; ; ) is a Spanish town situated on the west shore of the Bidasoa river's estuary, in Gipuzkoa, in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community. The border town is situated on a little promontory facing Hend ...

, Basque Country, Pikabea joined

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, ...

's youth system at the age of 17, going on to spend four seasons with their reserves. On 8 March 1992 he made his

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 ...

debut, playing 21 minutes in a 2–1 away win against

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

; his first appearance was handed by

John Toshack John Benjamin Toshack (born 22 March 1949) is a Welsh former professional football player and manager. He began his playing career as a teenager with his hometown club Cardiff City, becoming the youngest player to make an appearance for the ...

. Still under the

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, of or about Wales * Welsh language, spoken in Wales * Welsh people, an ethnic group native to Wales Places * Welsh, Arkansas, U.S. * Welsh, Louisiana, U.S. * Welsh, Ohio, U.S. * Welsh Basin, during t ...

manager, Pikabea became an undisputed starter for the

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 ...

side from the 1992–93 campaign onwards. In 1997–98, he only missed two league games and totalled 3,214 minutes of action as the team finished in third position, thus

qualifying Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

for the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. During most of his spell, Pikabea often partnered another Real Sociedad youth graduate,

Loren Loren is a given name, nickname and surname which may refer to: Given name Men * Loren Acton (born 1936), American physicist and astronaut * Loren C. Ball (born 1948), amateur astronomer who has discovered more than 100 asteroids * Loren M. Be ...

. A continuous loss of form made him appear in just six matches in his penultimate season (again with Toshack, who was having his third stint as head coach), and none whatsoever in his last, with French

Raynald Denoueix Raynald Denoueix (; born 14 May 1948) is a French football manager and former player. Born in Rouen, Denoueix spent his whole playing career as a defender at FC Nantes before becoming a coach at the club's youth academy. During his time at the ...

on the bench. He retired in June 2003 at nearly 33, having taken part in 313 competitive games for his only club.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pikabea, Jose Antonio 1970 births Living people Footballers from Hondarribia Spanish men's footballers Men's association football central defenders La Liga players Segunda División B players Real Sociedad B footballers Real Sociedad footballers Basque Country men's international footballers

Club career

See also

References

External links