Unai López Cabrera (; ; born 30 October 1995) is a Spanish 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 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. ...

for

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 ...

club

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in the Villa de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish foot ...

Club career

Born in

Errenteria Errenteria (, ) is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, in the north of Spain, near the French border. The river Oiartzun (river), Oiartzun cuts its way through the ...

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

, López joined

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 ...

's youth system in 2011 at the age of 14 from neighbouring

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

, after starting out at

Antiguoko Antiguoko Kirol Elkartea (Sport Club of Antiguo in English) is an amateur youth Spanish football club based in Antiguo, a part of San Sebastián, in the Basque Country, Spain. It acts as feeder club to Athletic Bilbao, previously having the sam ...

. He made his debut as a senior with the farm team in the 2012–13 season in the

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

, and in July 2013 was promoted to the reserves 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 ...

. López was called up to the main squad by manager

Ernesto Valverde Ernesto Valverde Tejedor (born 9 February 1964) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a forward. He is the current manager of La Liga club Athletic Bilbao. Over ten seasons, he amassed La Liga totals of 264 games and 68 ...

on 2 July 2014, for pre-season matches. In August, he was also included in a B list for that campaign's

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. On 27 August 2014, López was named on the bench for the Champions League play-off match against

S.S.C. Napoli Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli (), commonly known as SSC Napoli or simply Napoli, is an Italian professional football club based in Naples, Campania that currently competes in the Serie A, the highest league of Italian football. Napoli are am ...

. He made his first-team debut the following day, coming on as a substitute for Markel Susaeta in the 72nd minute of a 3–1 home win and also providing an assist to

Ibai Gómez Ibai Gómez Pérez (born 11 November 1989) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played mainly as a left winger, currently manager of club FC Andorra. He achieved La Liga totals of 226 games and 28 goals over 11 seasons, with Athlet ...

in the last goal. His

bow took place on the 30th, when he featured 23 minutes in the 3–0 defeat of

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– ...

also at the San Mamés Stadium. On 26 July 2016, after a season back at the B side 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 ...

, López was loaned to

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 ...

for one year. On 1 August of the following year, he moved to second tier club

on a one-year loan deal. López scored his first competitive goal for Athletic on 8 March 2020, from a

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 ...

to open a 4–1 away league victory over

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 ...

. He featured regularly during the 2019–20 campaign, but subsequently fell down the pecking order after the emergence of newer youth prospects such as Oihan Sancet, Unai Vencedor and Oier Zarraga. On 31 August 2021, López returned to Rayo on a three-year contract; Athletic retained a first refusal clause on any future transfer, while also receiving "a series of economic compensations".

International career

López represented

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

at under-16, under-18, under-19 and under-21 levels. He made his debut for the last of those age groups on 9 September 2014, in a 1–1 home draw against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

for the 2015 UEFA European Championship qualifiers.

Career statistics

Honours

Rayo Vallecano *

: 2017–18 Athletic Bilbao *

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: 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Unai 1995 births Living people 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Errenteria Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Antiguoko players CD Basconia footballers Athletic Bilbao B footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers CD Leganés players Rayo Vallecano players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers