José Ángel Crespo Rincón (born 9 February 1987) is a Spanish retired 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 ...

. Mainly 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 ...

, he could also play as a full-back. He made 74

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 ...

appearances for

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

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 ...

Córdoba Córdoba most commonly refers to: * Córdoba, Spain, a major city in southern Spain and formerly the imperial capital of Islamic Spain * Córdoba, Argentina, the second largest city in Argentina and the capital of Córdoba Province Córdoba or Cord ...

and

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in the Villa de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish foot ...

, and also had brief spells in

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

with

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

and the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

with

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

. He won a

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

and four cups with Greece's

PAOK PAOK (, Πανθεσσαλονίκειος Αθλητικός Όμιλος Κωνσταντινοπολιτών, ''Panthessalonikeios Athlitikós Ómilos Constantinopoliton'', ''Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans''), commonly ...

Club career

Sevilla

Crespo was born in Lora del Río,

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

. A product of

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, that competes in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. The club was formed on 25 January ...

's youth system, he made his first-team debut on 14 December 2005 in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

of 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 ...

, playing the full 90 minutes of a 1–1 draw at

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

; this was his only appearance of their victorious campaign. He made his

bow a week later in a 1–0 away defeat against

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. They compete in La Liga, the top tier of the Football in Spain, Spanish football. The team has pla ...

, appearing in two more games during the season while still registered with the reserves. In the 2007–08 campaign, with

Antonio Puerta Antonio José Puerta Pérez (; 26 November 1984 – 28 August 2007) was a Spanish professional Association football, footballer who played solely for Sevilla FC, Sevilla. Mainly a Midfielder#Wide midfielder, left midfielder who could also oper ...

's (who played mostly as

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 ...

) death, Crespo was definitely promoted to the main squad. In December 2008,

reportedly showed interest in signing him after several good performances under coach Manolo Jiménez, also his coach at Sevilla Atlético. On 3 July 2009, Crespo was loaned to fellow top-division club

in a

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 ...

-long move. After appearing sparingly during his stint, with the

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

ns narrowly avoiding relegation, he was released by Sevilla and joined

Calcio Padova Calcio Padova, commonly referred to as Padova, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Padua, Veneto. Founded in 1910, Padova currently play in , having last been in Serie A in 1996. The team's official colours are white and red. ...

in Italy.

Bologna

Crespo moved to

Bologna FC 1909 Bologna Football Club 1909, commonly referred to as Bologna (), is an Italian professional football club based in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna that plays in Serie A, the top flight of Italian football. The club have won seven top-flight titles, thr ...

on 14 July 2011, alongside Padova teammates

Federico Agliardi Federico Agliardi (born 11 February 1983) is an Italian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Career Brescia Agliardi grew up in his native city's team, Brescia Calcio, and made his professional debut with Cosenza of Serie B on 2002– ...

and Daniele Vantaggiato. Having been rarely played, he was loaned to

Hellas Verona FC Hellas Verona Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Hellas Verona (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Verona, Veneto, that currently plays in Serie A. The team won ...

and

Córdoba CF Córdoba Club de Fútbol (), is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Córdoba, Andalusia, Córdoba, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1954 after the dissolution of RCD Córdoba. Currently it plays ...

, signing a two-year permanent contract with the latter on 27 April 2015, with the deal being made effective in July. During his spell with the

Stadio Renato Dall'Ara Stadio Renato Dall'Ara is a multi-purpose stadium in Bologna, Italy. It is currently used mostly for association football, football matches and the home of Bologna FC 1909, Bologna FC. The stadium was designed by Giulio Ulisse Arata and inaugur ...

-based side, Crespo made his debut in

on 21 December 2011, playing the entire 0–2 home loss against

AS Roma Associazione Sportiva Roma (''Rome Sport Association''; Italian pronunciation: Help:IPA/Italian, ) is a professional Association football, football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier ...

. He scored his only goal in the competition on 27 October 2013, to help the hosts defeat AS Livorno Calcio 1–0.

Aston Villa

On 27 July 2015,

completed the signing of Crespo from Córdoba on a three-year deal for an undisclosed fee. He made his only appearance in the

on 3 October, starting in a 0–1 home defeat to

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

. Having made only one more appearance in the

Football League Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

, Crespo joined

on 20 January 2016, on a six-month loan.

PAOK

In early July 2016, Crespo signed a three-year contract with

PAOK FC PAOK FC (, ), short for "Pan-Thessalonian Sports club, Athletic Club of Constantinople, Constantinopolitans" (), and commonly known as PAOK Thessaloniki, PAOK Salonika or simply PAOK, is a Greek professional Association football, football cl ...

, for a nominal fee. In one of his first games on 18 August, he scored in a 3–0 win at

FC Dinamo Tbilisi FC Dinamo Tbilisi ( ka, დინამო თბილისი, ) is a Georgian professional football club based in Tbilisi that competes in the Erovnuli Liga, the top flight of Georgian football. Dinamo Tbilisi was one of the most prom ...

to make the Europa League group stage. His first season in

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

ended with a

Cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

victory, as a 2–1 victory over

AEK Athens F.C. A.E.K. Football Club (), known simply as A.E.K. (; ) in Greece and AEK Athens internationally, is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica, Greece. Established in Athens by Greek refugees from Constantinople in the ...

ended 14 years of drought. Crespo scored his first goal in the

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

on 2 December 2017, in a 3–0 away win against Xanthi FC. The following campaign, PAOK won the

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

to end 35 years without a league title. A fourth cup conquest in

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 ...

made him the most successful player in the club's history.

Career statistics

Honours

Sevilla B *

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 ...

: 2006–07 Sevilla *

: 2005–06 PAOK *

: 2018–19 *

Greek Football Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

: 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

APOEL *

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

: 2023–24 Spain U19 *

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-19, is an annual football competition, contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain is the most successful team in this competit ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Crespo, Jose Angel 1987 births Living people People from Lora del Río 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Province of Seville Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Sevilla Atlético players Sevilla FC players Racing de Santander players Córdoba CF players Rayo Vallecano players Serie A players Serie B players Calcio Padova players Bologna FC 1909 players Hellas Verona FC players Premier League players Aston Villa F.C. players Super League Greece players PAOK FC players Cypriot First Division players APOEL FC players UEFA Europa League–winning players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus