Juan José "Juanjo" Cañas Gutiérrez (born 17 April 1972) 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 ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He spent the majority of his career with Betis, where he appeared in 359 official matches over 15 seasons.

Club career

Born in

Rota, Andalusia The town of Rota is a Spanish municipality located in the Province of Cádiz, Andalusia. Its surface area is 84 km2 and is bordered by the towns of Chipiona, Sanlúcar de Barrameda and El Puerto de Santa María. It is located near the city of ...

, Cañas represented

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

in his professional career and played 228

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 ...

games during his tenure (scoring ten goals), his debut in the competition coming on 4 September 1994 in a 0–0 away draw against

CD Logroñés Club Deportivo Logroñés, S.A.D. was a Spanish football team based in Logroño, in the autonomous community of La Rioja. Founded in 1940, it last played in '' Regional Preferente de La Rioja''. Due to financial problems, since 2009 the club ha ...

; previously, he made a total of 53 first-team appearances over three seasons as the

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 ...

ns were 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 ...

. The highlight of his lengthy career was lifting the

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 ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

, as he was always

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

when playing.Dani delivers for Betis
UEFA, 11 June 2005 Also in the 2004–05 campaign, Cañas still contributed 24 matches to help the club to a fourth place in the league, good enough to reach the

qualifying rounds 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 ...

of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. From

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 ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

he played for lowly

CD Alcalá Club Deportivo Alcalá is a Spanish football team based in Alcalá de Guadaira, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1945 it plays in , and plays home games at ''Nuevo Estadio Ciudad de Alcalá'', with a capacity of 2,261 seaters ...

– also in his native region – 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 ...

, and retired at the age of 36. Afterwards, Cañas worked two seasons with Betis as a member of their technical staff.

Personal life

Cañas' nephew,

José José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced ...

, is also a footballer and a midfielder. He too spent most of his professional career with Betis.

Honours

Betis *

: 2004–05

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Canas, Juan Jose 1972 births Living people People from Rota, Andalusia 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Province of Cádiz Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Betis Deportivo Balompié footballers Real Betis players CD Alcalá players Real Betis non-playing staff