Juan Vizcaíno Morcillo (born 6 August 1966) is a Spanish retired

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 mainly as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

, currently assistant manager of

Gimnàstic de Tarragona Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona, commonly known as Gimnàstic Tarragona or sometimes just Nàstic, is a Spanish sports club based in Tarragona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Its football team plays in . The club was founded in 1886 an ...

. Regarded and praised as an accomplished role player, his career was intimately connected with

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 ...

. Over 13 seasons, he amassed

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 ...

totals of 396 matches and 33 goals, also representing in the competition

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

and

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

Club career

Born in

La Pobla de Mafumet ; ) is a small town in the ''comarca'' of the Tarragonès, in the province of Tarragona, Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonom ...

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in Catalonia (Spain). It is the capital and largest town of Tarragonès county, the Camp de Tarragona region and the province of Tarragona. Geographically, it is located on the Costa Daurada ar ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, Vizcaíno started playing with hometown's

. He was offered his first-team debut by coach

Xabier Azkargorta Francisco Xabier Azkargorta Uriarte (born 26 September 1953) is a Spanish former professional football forward and manager. Football career Born in Azpeitia, Gipuzkoa, Azkargorta spent five years under contract to Athletic Bilbao after arrivin ...

during the 1982–83 season not yet aged 17, with the club 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 ...

. In 1986, Vizcaíno stayed in that level as he moved to

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

, initially being assigned to their reserves. He made his

debut against

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 ...

on 9 March 1988, and remained a regular fixture until the end of his stay with the

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

ese side,Vizcaíno: el obrero del doblete colchonero (Vizcaíno: the ''colchonero'' double's handyman)

Cadena COPE COPE, an acronym for Cadena de Ondas Populares Españolas ("People's Radiowaves of Spain Network") formerly called Radio Popular, is a Spanish language radio station. It is the second most listened to in Spain's generalist radio. Owned by the S ...

, 23 February 2016 (in Spanish) while also scoring ten league goals from a defensive position. Vizcaíno signed with

for the 1990–91 campaign, starting every game he appeared in in four of his first five years. In 1995–96, he was the outfield player with the most appearances (41 matches, 3,136 minutes and three goals) as the capital-based team conquered 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 ...

. After two more solid years, Vizcaíno left for

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 ...

, joining

Elche CF Elche Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional football club based in Elche, Province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community, Spain. Founded in 1923, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025–26 season, holding home matches at ...

for the second part of the 2000–01 season and closing out his career at 35 with his first club, Gimnàstic – the latter two 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 ...

. He stayed in the region afterwards, working for the

city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

's sports departments in Pobla de Mafumet. Vizcaíno returned to Atlético ahead of the 2011–12 campaign, being appointed new manager Gregorio Manzano's assistant. He remained several years at the

Vicente Calderón Stadium The Vicente Calderón Stadium ( ) was the home stadium of Atlético Madrid from its completion in 1966 to 2017, with a seating capacity of 54,907. It was located on the banks of the Manzanares, in the Arganzuela district of Madrid, Spain. The ...

in the role, under his former teammate

Diego Simeone Diego Pablo Simeone González (; ; born 28 April 1970), nicknamed "El Cholo" (), is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who played as a defender. He has been the manager of club Atlético Madrid since December 2011 mak ...

.Juan Vizcaíno: "Le dejé claro a Diego Simeone que no compartía los motivos de mi salida" (Juan Vizcaíno: "I let Diego Simeone know clearly that I did not see eye to eye with him regarding the reasons for my departure")

El Confidencial ''El Confidencial'' is a Spanish-language general-information digital newspaper located in Spain, specializing in economic, financial and political news. It was established as an online newspaper in 2001. Its target readership is professional ...

, 12 March 2023 (in Spanish) On 14 November 2024, Vizcaíno went back to Gimnàstic to become Dani Vidal's assistant coach.

International career

Vizcaíno won 15

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for the Spain national team, the first arriving on 16 January 1991 in a friendly with

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

(1–1, in

Castellón de la Plana Castellón de la Plana (in ), or simply Castellón (), is the capital city of the province of Castellón, in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is located in the east of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Costa del Azahar by the Mediterranean Sea. Th ...

).La selección, sin chispa ni garra (The national team, sparkless and spunkless)
Mundo Deportivo, 17 January 1991 (in Spanish) The nation did not qualify for

UEFA Euro 1992 The 1992 UEFA European Football Championship was hosted by Sweden between 10 and 26 June 1992. It was the ninth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. Denmark won the 1992 championship, having been inv ...

, and the player was all but ousted from the call-ups after the arrival of new coach

Javier Clemente Javier Clemente Lázaro (; born 12 March 1950) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Forced to retire from playing in his early 20s through injury, he embarked on a coaching career with his first managerial ...

Honours

Atlético Madrid *

: 1995–96 *

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 ...

: 1990–91, 1991–92, 1995–96

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vizcaino, Juan 1966 births Living people People from Tarragonès 20th-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Province of Tarragona Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Gimnàstic de Tarragona footballers Deportivo Aragón players Real Zaragoza players Atlético Madrid footballers Real Valladolid players Elche CF players Spain men's international footballers Atlético Madrid non-playing staff