Óscar de Paula
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Óscar de Paula Gamero | ||
| Date of birth | 31 May 1975 | ||
| Place of birth | Durango, Spain | ||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Olivenza | |||
| Salesianos | |||
| Badajoz | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1993–1995 | Badajoz | 27 | (5) |
| 1995–2006 | Real Sociedad | 273 | (57) |
| 2006–2007 | Cádiz | 30 | (4) |
| 2007–2011 | Ponferradina | 114 | (48) |
| National team | |||
| 1996–1998 | Spain U21 | 7 | (1) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). | |||
Óscar de Paula Gamero (born 31 May 1975) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a striker.
Most of his professional career was associated with Real Sociedad, for which he appeared in 11 La Liga seasons, playing in nearly 350 official games and scoring more than 60 goals.
Football career
Born in Durango, Biscay, Basque Country, de Paula began his football career playing for lowly clubs in Badajoz, as his family hailed from Olivenza (Extremadura). Being still a junior he moved to local CD Badajoz and made his professional debuts midway through the 1992–93 season in the second division, remaining with the club for two additional campaigns.
At the beginning of 1995–96, de Paula moved back to his native region to play for La Liga side Real Sociedad. His first game came on 10 September 1995, playing three minutes of a 3–0 home win against Sporting de Gijón; he went on to play 11 seasons at Sociedad, all of them in the first division.
De Paula's time as a player for Real Sociedad was very successful although he was never a regular starter, more often than not scoring goals after coming in as a substitute, and usually made a good goals scored/minutes played ratio. Through 1999 to 2001 he netted nine goals in each season, but only appeared in 11 contests in 2002–03 as the club finished runner-up and, in his last year, managed just six matches (280 minutes) with three goals.
In June 2006 de Paula's contract expired,[1] and he left and moved south to Cádiz CF in the second-tier, "descending" yet another level at the end of 2007–08 after joining third level's SD Ponferradina and scoring 32 league goals in his first two seasons combined (16 apiece).
De Paula netted 11 times in 25 games in the 2009–10 campaign as the Castile and León team returned to the second division after a three-year absence. However, Ponfe would be immediately relegated back and, aged 36, he announced his professional retirement, having appeared in 444 league matches both major levels combined and scored 114 goals.
References
- ↑ De Paula signs out at Real Sociedad; UEFA.com, 9 June 2006