Aitor Larrazábal
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Aitor Larrazábal Bilbao | ||
| Date of birth | 21 June 1971 | ||
| Place of birth | Bilbao, Spain | ||
| Height | 1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in) | ||
| Playing position | Left back | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1982–1989 | Athletic Bilbao | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1989–1991 | Bilbao Athletic | 43 | (2) |
| 1990–2004 | Athletic Bilbao | 390 | (39) |
| Total | 433 | (41) | |
| National team | |||
| 1990 | Spain U20 | 1 | (0) |
| 1990–1991 | Spain U21 | 4 | (0) |
| 1991 | Spain U23 | 3 | (0) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 2008–2009 | Gatika | ||
| 2009–2011 | Lemona | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). | |||
Aitor Larrazábal Bilbao (born 21 June 1971) is a Spanish retired footballer who played solely for Athletic Bilbao.
A left back of offensive penchant he appeared in 445 official games for his only club, and was also a penalty kick specialist, scoring at least one La Liga goal in 13 of his 14 professional seasons.
Club career
Larrazábal was born in Bilbao, Biscay. Having joined Athletic Bilbao's youth ranks at 11, he started playing professionally with its reserves in Segunda División, and made his first-team debut on 2 September 1990 in a 0–1 away loss against CD Tenerife, finishing his first year in La Liga with 18 games.
From then onwards Larrazábal was an undisputed starter for the Basque, scoring and assisting alike. In the 1997–98 season, as Bilbao finished runner-up, he scored a career-best seven league goals, being instrumental as his team qualified for the subsequent edition of the UEFA Champions League, where he featured, for instance, in both group stage draws against Juventus FC, although the club eventually ranked last.
After Asier del Horno (another Lezama youth graduate)'s emergence in the 2002–03 campaign, Larrazábal still featured prominently in his last two seasons combined – 36 matches, three goals – but eventually retired from the game in May 2004 at the age of 33, after a two-decade link with a sole club.[1]
Larrazábal subsequently became a coach: after starting in amateur football he joined lowly SD Lemona (Basque Country) in Segunda División B in 2009, leading the club to the sixth position in his first year and narrowly missing out on playoff qualification.
See also
References
- ↑ Andresen prolongs Stabæk stay; UEFA.com 21 May 2004