Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Fernando Sanz Durán | ||
Date of birth | January 4, 1974 | ||
Place of birth | Madrid, Spain | ||
Height | 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||
Playing position | Centre back | ||
Youth career | |||
Real Madrid | |||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
1993–1996 | Real Madrid B | 47 | (0) |
1993 | → Unión Española (loan) | ? | (?) |
1996–1999 | Real Madrid | 35 | (0) |
1999–2006 | Málaga | 205 | (4) |
National team | |||
1990–1991 | Spain U17 | 2 | (0) |
1991 | Spain U18 | 1 | (0) |
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
Fernando Sanz Durán (born 4 January 1974) is a retired Spanish footballer who played as a central defender.
He spent seven years of his professional career with Málaga - after starting out at Real Madrid - appearing in more than 250 official games. Subsequently, he worked for four years as the club's president.
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Born in Madrid, Sanz was a product of Real Madrid's youth system and, after a quick loan stint in Chile, first appeared with the main side on 2 March 1996, playing nine minutes of a 5–0 home win against UD Salamanca (José García Calvo, another centre back from the youth ranks, also played his first top flight match that day). He finished the season with 13 appearances, playing a further six matches in the following, as the club was crowned league champions.
Sanz was also part of their UEFA Champions League victory in 1997–98. However, despite being the son of Lorenzo Sanz, the president of the club at the time, he never really managed to hold up a regular first team spot at Real.
For the start of the 1999–2000 season, Sanz signed with Málaga CF. On 8 September 2001, he scored his first goal as a professional, in a 1–1 draw at his former employers. That season, the Andalusia side finished 10th and he helped it win the subsequent Intertoto Cup, which eventually led to a UEFA Cup quarterfinal run, with the player appearing in eight complete matches.
Sanz retired from football in 2006, after Málaga's relegation, with 240 games and four goals in the top level to his credit, immediately becoming president of the club after his father bought 97% of its shares.[1] After four years, he resigned on 27 July 2010, as the club was sold earlier in the summer to a Qatari investor.[2]
Sanz is the brother-in-law of another Real Madrid player, Míchel Salgado - the two were never teammates, as Salgado arrived the year Sanz left the club - who married his sister Malula.[3]