Juan Ángel Albín Leites (born 17 July 1986) is a Uruguayan 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 plays as an

attacking 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. ...

or a winger for

Segunda División de Costa Rica Costa Rican Second Division (also known as Liga Transcomer for sponsorship reasons) is a professional league incorporated in 1921 for association football clubs in Costa Rica. It is the country's second-tier/division football competition, which ...

club Municipal Grecia. After starting out at

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

, he spent the first part of his career in

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 ...

and went on acquire

Spanish citizenship The Spanish nationality legal framework refers to all the laws, provisions, regulations, and resolutions in Spain concerning nationality. Article 11 of the First Title of the Spanish Constitution refers to Spanish nationality and establishes ...

. He amassed league totals of 129 matches and 21 goals over seven seasons in the latter country, representing

Getafe Getafe () is a municipalities in Spain, municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city c ...

and

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as RCD Espanyol, is a Spanish professional sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The club competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spa ...

in the competition. Other than Uruguay and Spain, Albín played in Romania, Mexico, Cyprus and Costa Rica.

Club career

Nacional

Born in Salto,

Salto Department Salto Department () is a Departments of Uruguay, department of the northwestern region of Uruguay. It has an area of about and a population of about 136,197. Its capital is the city of Salto, Uruguay, Salto. It borders Artigas Department to its n ...

, Albín started his career at

Club Nacional de Football Club Nacional de Football (, ''National Football Club'') is a Uruguayan professional sports club based in La Blanqueada, La Blanqueada, Montevideo. The club was founded on 14 May 1899 as a result of the merger between ''Uruguay Athletic Club'' an ...

, where he won two Primera División championships. His strong performances earned him a transfer to Spanish club

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 ...

in the 2006 summer

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

Getafe

Albín featured sparingly in his first season (13

games), but became first choice the following campaign as the

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

outskirts team reached the quarter-finals 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 ...

and a mid-table league position. After a coaching change brought Míchel to the bench, however, he began appearing less regularly; on 29 November 2008, in a rare start, he scored in a 3–1 home win over

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

. On 21 April 2009, also against Real Madrid, Albín was struck in the face by

Pepe Pepe is a pet form of the Spanish and Portuguese name José (Joseph). It is also a surname. * People Mononyms *Pepe (footballer, born 1935), Brazilian footballer José Macia *Pepe (footballer, born 1983), Brazilian-born Portuguese footballer ...

, in the mêlée which resulted after the Portuguese's aggression on Javier Casquero. He continued being used intermittently in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, netting a last-minute winner at home against

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D., usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Villarreal, in the Province of Castellón, Castellón province of easte ...

on 11 December 2010 but also being

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

for lifting his shirt, in a second bookable offence.

Espanyol

In mid-April 2011, Getafe agreed to sell Albín to

RCD Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as RCD Espanyol, is a Spanish professional sports club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The club competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spa ...

for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

3 million, as his contract was set to expire in June 2012. He spent several months of his first season on the sidelines, nursing a leg injury. Albín scored his first goal for the

Catalans Catalans ( Catalan, French and Occitan: ''catalans''; ; ; or ) are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citizens of Catalonia, a nationality and autono ...

on 4 February 2012, netting in the 92nd minute for a 3–3 away draw against

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 ...

. In January 2013, due to lack of playing time, he was loaned to his former club Nacional.

Later career

On 6 September 2013, Albín signed a one-year contract with

FC Petrolul Ploiești Asociația Clubul Sportiv Petrolul 52, commonly referred to as FC Petrolul Ploiești (), Petrolul Ploiești or simply Petrolul, is a Romanian professional Association football, football Club (organization), club based in Ploiești, Prahova Count ...

in Romania, rejoining his former Getafe teammate

Cosmin Contra Cosmin Marius Contra (; born 15 December 1975) is a Romanian football manager and former player. Primarily an attacking-minded right-back, he was also deployed as a midfielder. He played professionally in three countries his own notwithstanding ...

who was now a manager. He made his

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

debut on the 21st, scoring his team's goal in a 1–1 draw at

FC Dinamo București FC Dinamo București, commonly known as Dinamo București () or simply Dinamo, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in Bucharest that competes in the Liga I. Founded in 1948 as the team of the Ministry of Inter ...

. On 31 March 2014, Albín chose to extend his link by one year even if at that time Contra had already left. He ended the campaign with 28 matches and ten goals in all competitions. Albín scored against

GNK Dinamo Zagreb Građanski nogometni klub Dinamo Zagreb (), commonly referred to as simply Dinamo Zagreb (), is a Croatian professional association football, football Football team, club based in Zagreb. Dinamo play their home matches at Stadion Maksimir. They ...

in the second leg of the Europa League play-off round, on 28 August 2014; however, his side lost 5–2 on aggregate and failed to progress to the group stage. On 16 December, as Petrolul faced financial issues which led to

insolvency In accounting, insolvency is the state of being unable to pay the debts, by a person or company ( debtor), at maturity; those in a state of insolvency are said to be ''insolvent''. There are two forms: cash-flow insolvency and balance-sheet i ...

and ultimately

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

, he was transferred to C.D. Veracruz of Mexico. Albín returned to Romania and its top division nearly three years later, joining Dinamo București on 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 loan with an option to buy. On 18 July 2018, the 32-year-old joined

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 ...

club

AC Omonia Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia (; ''Athlitikós Sýllogos Omónoia Lefkosías''), commonly known as Omonia Nicosia, or simply Omonia (also Romanization of Greek, transliterated as Omonoia), is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional multi-sport club, esta ...

International career

Albín represented

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

at under-17 and under-20 levels. In March 2009, he was called to the full side by

Óscar Tabárez Óscar Washington Tabárez Silva (; born 3 March 1947), known as ''El Maestro'' (The Teacher), is a Uruguayan former professional football manager and former player. After an unassuming career as a player and after working as a primary school ...

ahead of a

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

qualifier against

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

, but remained unused in the 2–0 victory and never won a

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

Style of play

Albín was a left-footed

who could also be deployed as a winger. He was described as a footballer with "great speed and a very good technique". During his first stint in Romania, Albín was known as an excellent

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...

taker, and in 2016 former international

Adrian Mutu Adrian Mutu (; born 8 January 1979) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player. During his playing career, he was deployed as a forward or an attacking midfielder. Mutu started his career playing two years for Argeș Pite� ...

went as far to state that he was the best foreigner that the league ever had.

Honours

Nacional *

Uruguayan Primera División The Liga Profesional de Primera División (American Spanish , , local: , ''First Division''), named "Torneo Uruguayo Copa Coca-Cola" for sponsorship reasons, is the highest professional Association football, football league in Uruguay organized b ...

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 ...

, 2005–06 Getafe *

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 ...

runner-up: 2006–07, 2007–08 Veracruz *

Copa MX Copa MX, also known as Copa Corona MX for sponsorship reasons, was an association football competition in Mexico and the domestic cup tournament for clubs at the highest and second levels of Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Copa ...

: Clausura 2016

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Albin, Juan Angel 1986 births Living people People from Salto, Uruguay Naturalised citizens of Spain Uruguayan men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Men's association football wingers Uruguayan Primera División players Uruguayan Segunda División players Club Nacional de Football players Rampla Juniors players Defensor Sporting players La Liga players Getafe CF footballers RCD Espanyol footballers Liga I players FC Petrolul Ploiești players FC Dinamo București players Liga MX players C.D. Veracruz footballers Cypriot First Division players AC Omonia players Liga FPD players Municipal Grecia players Uruguay men's youth international footballers Uruguay men's under-20 international footballers Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Costa Rica Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Romania Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Costa Rica