Samuel San José Fernández (born 1 March 1984), known simply as Samuel or Samu for short, is a Spanish former 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

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 ...

, currently

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

UM Escobedo Unión Montañesa Escobedo is a Spanish football team based in Escobedo, Camargo, in the autonomous community of Cantabria. Founded in 1917 it plays in , holding home matches at '' Estadio Eusebio Arce''. History Escobedo was founded in 1917, ...

Club career

Born in Santander,

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 ...

, Samu was a product of his hometown club

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 ...

's youth system. He first appeared for its main squad on 11 September 2005, in a 0–1 home loss against

Cádiz CF Cádiz Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a Spanish professional football club based in Cádiz, Andalusia. Founded in 1910, the club competes in Segunda División, holding home games at Nuevo Mirandilla, with a seating capacity of 20,724. Salvadoran ...

. He finished the season with seven appearances (all but one were complete matches) and four yellow cards, as the

side finished 17th 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 narrowly avoided relegation. After having served 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 stint with

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting is a Spanish professional association football, football club from Gijón, Principality of Asturias. Founded on 1 July 1905, it plays in the ...

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 ...

, Samuel returned to Racing but, midway through the 2007–08 campaign, would be loaned again, alongside teammate

Christian Fernández Christian Fernández Salas (born 15 October 1985) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played mainly as a left-back. In a 20-year senior career, he totalled 276 games and 22 goals in the Segunda División over ten seasons, representi ...

, to second-tier strugglers

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas S.A.D. is a professional association football, football club based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. The club will compete in Segunda División, the 2nd division in the Spanish football league syst ...

. Both would be instrumental in helping the

Canarians Canary Islanders, or Canarians (), are the people of the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain near the coast of Northwest Africa. The distinctive variety of the Spanish language spoken in the region is known as ''habla canaria'' (Ca ...

to retain their league status. Subsequently, Christian returned to Santander but Samu stayed, signing for three years with the option for a further one. He appeared in an average of 23 games the following three seasons, with his team always managing to stay afloat in division two. Samuel then alternated between the second division and 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 ...

, representing

SD Ponferradina Sociedad Deportiva Ponferradina, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Ponferrada, in the El Bierzo region, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 7 June 1922, it plays in Primera Federación - Group 1, holding home ma ...

and Racing Santander and achieving promotion with the former in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

. He spent 2015–16 in the Mexican

Ascenso MX Ascenso MX, also known as Ascenso BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, was a professional association football league in Mexico and the second level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Primera División A de México (1994–2009 ...

, with

Atlético San Luis Club Atlético de San Luis is a Mexican professional football club based in San Luis Potosí. It competes in the Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football. Founded in 2013, replacing the defunct club of the city ( San Luis FC) after its re ...

. After returning to his home country, Samu saw out his career at age 39, playing lower-league and amateur football with UD Llagostera,

SD Formentera Sociedad Deportiva Formentera is a football team based in Sant Francesc Xavier, Formentera in the Balearic Islands. The team plays in . The club's home ground is the Estadi Municipal, which has a capacity of 500 spectators. History Founded in 197 ...

and

Coaching career

Samu was named manager of his last club immediately after retiring. On 19 May 2024, having achieved promotion to

Segunda Federación Segunda Federación, previously called Segunda RFEF, also officially known as Segunda B, is the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system containing 90 teams divided into five groups. It is administered by the Royal Spanish Football Fede ...

as group winners, he renewed his contract for a further year.RENOVACIÓN Samuel San José seguirá al frente del equipo la próxima temporada. (RENEWAL Samuel San José will continue leading the team next season.)

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

, 19 May 2024 (in Spanish)

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel San Jose 1984 births Living people 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Santander, Spain Men's association football central defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Tercera Federación players Deportivo Rayo Cantabria players Rayo Cantabria players Racing de Santander players Sporting de Gijón players UD Las Palmas players SD Ponferradina players Som Maresme FC players SD Formentera players San Luis F.C. players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Spanish football managers Segunda Federación managers Tercera Federación managers