Carlos Alejandro Sierra Fumero (born 14 October 1974), known as Sandro, 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 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. ...

Club career

Born in Las Galletas,

Santa Cruz de Tenerife Santa Cruz de Tenerife (; locally ), commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz, is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and one of the capitals of the Canary Islands, along with Las Palmas. Santa Cruz has a ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

, Sandro began his professional career with

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 ...

's reserves, receiving his first-team debut on 10 September 1994 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 ...

, under

Jorge Valdano Jorge Alberto Francisco Valdano Castellanos (born 4 October 1955) is an Argentine former football player, coach, and the former general manager of Real Madrid. He is currently working as a commentator for beIN Sports. Nicknamed "The Philosophe ...

. He helped with 13

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 ...

matches in that season's victorious campaign, but was soon pushed to the sidelines by another youth product, Guti. After a stint with

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 ...

in the second division, Sandro dropped down to the third level in January 1998, and helped

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, who compete in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system, following the ...

achieve a top flight promotion in just two seasons – he played 29 games in the latter, scoring once. In summer 1997, he had a trial at

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

, but it did not lead to a contract. In 2003, Sandro signed for

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 6 September 1909, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025– ...

. Again used regularly in his first season, for another promotion, he featured very rarely in 2004–05's first division (only three appearances). The

Valencians Valencians ( ; ) are the native people of the Valencian Community, in eastern Spain. Since 2006, the Valencian people are officially recognised in the Valencian Statute of Autonomy as a ''nationality'' "within the unity of the Spanish nation". ...

were eventually relegated, but he remained with them for a further year. Sandro returned to Málaga for 2006–07, with the side again in division two. After the 2008 promotion, his contract expired and he retired; club chairman, former Madrid teammate Fernando Sanz, offered him a job as technical director which he accepted.

Honours

Club

Real Madrid *

: 1994–95 Málaga *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Levante *

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 ...

: 2003–04

Country

Spain U16 *

UEFA European Under-16 Championship The UEFA European Under-17 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-17, is an annual Association football, football competition contested by the men's under-17 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain national under-17 football team, ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

Spain U17 *

FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the annual world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fé ...

: Runner-up

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sandro 1974 births Living people Sportspeople from Tenerife Footballers from the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife Spanish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players UD Las Palmas players Málaga CF players Levante UD footballers Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers