José Manuel Suárez Rivas (born 18 February 1974), known as Sietes, 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

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. He appeared in 194

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 ...

matches over ten seasons, mainly for

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Spain, Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spani ...

. He started his 19-year senior career with

Real Oviedo Real Oviedo ( Asturian: Real Uviéu) is a Spanish professional football club based in Oviedo, Asturias. Founded on 26 March 1926, the club plays in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system. The club plays at ...

Club career

Sietes, who was born in

Sietes José Manuel Suárez Rivas (born 18 February 1974), known as Sietes, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a left-back. He appeared in 194 La Liga matches over ten seasons, mainly for Racing de Santander. He started his 19-y ...

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

, receiving his

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

from his birthplace,¿Qué fue de Sietes? El jugador ermitaño, concejal, alcalde y ahora scout del Mallorca... (What happened to Sietes? The hermit player, councilman, mayor and now Mallorca scout...)

Diario AS ''Diario AS'' () (sometime stylized as ''AS'' or ''As''; ) is a Spanish daily sports newspaper that concentrates particularly on association football. Profile ''Diario AS'' is part of PRISA which also owns ''El País'' and ''Cinco Días''. The ...

, 12 July 2019 (in Spanish) started playing for local giants

, first appearing with the first team on 27 March 1994 in a 0–0 away draw against

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid (), is a Spanish professional List of football clubs in Spain, football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León that will compete from the 2025–26 season in the . The club ...

. With just nine

matches throughout the entire

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

, he did score his only two goals as a professional in back-to-back 3–0 wins over

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 ...

and

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 ...

.Sietes: «Lo peor con Clemente eran sus charlas de dos horas: sobre fútbol, barcos… su abuelo pescador…» (Sietes: "The worst about Clemente were his two-hour lectures: about football, boats… his fisherman grandfather…")

Jot Down ''Jot Down'' is a cultural magazine based in Barcelona, Spain. The magazine was started as an online magazine, but has also published quarterly print editions. It describes itself as one of the representatives of slow journalism. History and pro ...

, 24 March 2024 (in Spanish) Signing with

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 ...

for the 1995–96 campaign, Sietes was used sparingly over two seasons – underperforming mainly due to

homesickness Homesickness is the distress caused by being away from home.Kerns, Brumariu, Abraham. Kathryn A., Laura E., Michelle M.(2009/04/13). Homesickness at summer camp. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 54. Its cognitive hallmark is preoccupying thoughts of home ...

– and moved to

for 1997–98, where he would constantly battle top-flight relegation (which would eventually befall in

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, with the club returning the following season with 39 appearances from the player). His career was unassuming afterwards, with stints mainly in the

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 ...

, punctuated by a season with

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

in the English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

where he did not play one single minute due to transfer issues and injury problems. After only five games for

CD Numancia Club Deportivo Numancia de Soria, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club in Soria, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 April 1945, it plays in , holding home games at '' Nuevo Estadio Los Pajaritos''. Besides football it ...

in the 2007–08 campaign, with the

Soria Soria () is a municipality and a Spanish city, located on the Douro river in the east of the autonomous community of Castile and León and capital of the province of Soria. Its population is 38,881 ( INE, 2017), 43.7% of the provincial populatio ...

team returning to the top division after a three-year absence, Sietes joined

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 ...

side

CD Lealtad Club Deportivo Lealtad de Villaviciosa (English: Loyalty Sporting Club of Villaviciosa) is a Spanish football team based in Villaviciosa, in the autonomous community of Asturias. Founded in 1916, it plays in , holding home games at ''Les Caley ...

in Villaviciosa, remaining there three seasons. On 31 August 2012, having helped

Real Avilés Industrial CF Real Avilés Industrial Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team based in Avilés, in the autonomous community of Asturias. Founded in 1903 it plays in , holding home matches at Estadio Román Suárez Puerta, with an approximate capacity of 5, ...

, also in his native region, to promote to

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 ...

, the 38-year-old announced his retirement.

International career

Sietes represented

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, appearing once for the quarter-finalists.

Post-retirement

After retiring, Sietes was Avilés'

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

for a brief period of time. Also, he worked as mayor of Rales (a parish in

Llanes Llanes (the ''Concejo de Llanes'', ''Conceyu de Llanes'' in Asturian language) is a municipality of the province of Asturias, in northern Spain. Stretching for about 30 km along the coast at the extreme east of the province, Llanes is bound ...

, from 2007 to 2011), councilman in the Villaviciosa town hall (2011–12) and

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (, , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or RCD Mallorca, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Palma de Mallorca, ...

. Additionally, Sietes was involved in

rural tourism Rural tourism is a form of tourism that focuses on actively participating in a rural lifestyle. It can be a variant of ecotourism, emphasizing sustainable practices and community involvement. Many villages can facilitate tourism because of the ho ...

Honours

Numancia *

: 2007–08 Spain U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

runner-up:

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

Italia ya ganó un Europeo a España en el 1996 (Italy have already won European Championships against Spain in 1996)
; Orgullo Bianconero, 18 June 2013 (in Spanish)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sietes 1974 births Living people People from Villaviciosa, Asturias 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Asturias Men's association football fullbacks La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Real Oviedo Vetusta players Real Oviedo players Valencia CF players Racing de Santander players Deportivo Alavés players Real Murcia CF players CD Numancia players CD Lealtad players Real Avilés Industrial CF footballers Watford F.C. players Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spain men's under-23 international footballers Olympic footballers for Spain Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England