Rubén Navarro Méndez (born 6 June 1978) is a Spanish former

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 striker. 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 147 games and 31 goals over seven seasons, representing

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

, Numancia and Alavés. He added 187 matches and 57 goals 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 ...

, in a 15-year professional career.

Club career

Navarro was born in

Sallent de Llobregat Sallent de Llobregat () or Sallent is a municipality in the comarca of Bages, Province of Barcelona, in the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, Spain. The river Llobregat divides the municipality into two halves. Its main resources are mining an ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

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 ...

. A product of

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 ...

's youth system, he first appeared in

on 15 June 1997 in a 2–1 home win against

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 ...

, but could never settle at his first club, moving to

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 ...

where he played two years; he scored ten league goals in his first season in

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 ...

in spite of injury problems, helping barely avoid top-flight relegation. Subsequently, Navarro joined

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually known as Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Basque ...

after the side's runner-up exploits in 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 ...

. He was an important attacking element for six years, three spent in the

; in three of those campaigns, he netted in double digits. Navarro signed with another team in the second tier for 2007–08,

Hércules CF Hércules de Alicante Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team in Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded on 25 October 1922, it currently plays in Primera Federación and plays its home games ...

. On 5 April 2009, as they eventually narrowly missed on promotion, he scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

against

Sevilla Atlético Sevilla Atlético is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1950, it is the reserve team of Sevilla FC, Sevilla. It plays in and holds home games at the Ciu ...

in an 8–0 home rout. In late June 2009, Navarro returned to his native region after nearly 15 years, signing as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

with

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 ...

for two years. On 2 September 2011, after two seasons of irregular use after which he did not have his contract renewed and was released, the 33-year-old joined

CD Leganés Club Deportivo Leganés, S.A.D. is a professional football club based in Leganés, Community of Madrid. They currently compete in La Liga, the first tier of the Spanish league system. Leganés was officially founded 23 June 1928 and played thei ...

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 ...

.Rubén Navarro: "Llego con muchas ganas al Leganés" (Rubén Navarro: "I arrive full of illusion to Leganés")
Resultados Fútbol, 2 September 2011 (in Spanish)

References

External links

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CiberChe stats and bio
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Navarro, Ruben 1978 births Living people People from Bages Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Province of Barcelona Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Valencia CF Mestalla footballers Valencia CF players CD Numancia players Deportivo Alavés players Hércules CF players Gimnàstic de Tarragona footballers CD Leganés players Catalonia men's international footballers