César Gómez del Rey (born 23 October 1967) is a Spanish former

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 a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He was best known for being part of the

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

sides that consolidated in

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 ...

into consecutive

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

presences. Over the course of seven seasons, he amassed totals in the former competition of 217 games and five goals, also representing

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

Football career

Gómez was born in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. He unsuccessfully graduated from

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 youth system, and made his professional debuts in 1990 with

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 ...

, being relegated from

in his second year. Gómez joined fellow league team

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1922, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez L� ...

in summer 1992, being instrumental as they

qualified Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

for the

in his debut campaign. Moreover, he played in the last league round against his ''

alma mater Alma mater (; : almae matres) is an allegorical Latin phrase meaning "nourishing mother". It personifies a school that a person has attended or graduated from. The term is related to ''alumnus'', literally meaning 'nursling', which describes a sc ...

'', as Tenerife won and the ''Merengues'' lost the national title for the second consecutive year against the same team. In 1997, after roughly 200 overall appearances for the

Canarians Canary Islanders, or Canarians (), are the people of the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain near the coast of Northwest Africa. The distinctive variety of the Spanish language spoken in the region is known as ''habla canaria'' (Ca ...

, Gómez was signed by

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

A.S. Roma Associazione Sportiva Roma (''Rome Sport Association''; Italian pronunciation: ) is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its exis ...

on a lucrative four-year contract, arriving at the same time as compatriot

Iván Helguera Iván Helguera Bujía (; born 28 March 1975) is a Spanish former professional footballer. Playing as either a central defender or defensive midfielder, with both good defensive and offensive skills, he represented five clubs during his professi ...

. However, he only played a total of 87 minutes in his first season, including a lone start in a ''

Derby della Capitale The Derby della Capitale (), also known as Derby Capitolino and Derby del Cupolone, as well as The Rome Derby in English and Derby di Roma in Italian, is the Association football, football local derby in Rome, Italy, between SS Lazio, Lazio and ...

'' 1–3 defeat to 10-man

S.S. Lazio (; ; ''Lazio Sport Club'') is an Italian professional sports club based in Rome, most known for its football activity. The society, founded in 1900, plays in the Serie A and have spent most of their history in the top tier of Italian footba ...

; he was successively removed from the first team following his refusal for a release by mutual consent, and spent the following three years without appearing in a single match. Gómez retired in 2001 after his contract expired, but stayed in the city, where he had opened a car shop in the

EUR The euro (symbol: €; currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the euro area or, more commonly, the eurozone. The euro is divided into 10 ...

neighbourhood in the meantime. It was then revealed he had been signed by Roma following a mistake from the club directors, who actually were interested in fellow Tenerife defender

Pablo Paz Pablo Ariel Paz Gallo (born 27 January 1973) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a central defender. In a career that spanned 15 years, he played more in Spain than in his homeland, notably with Tenerife for which he ap ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gomez, Cesar 1967 births Living people Footballers from Madrid Spanish men's footballers Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Valladolid players CD Tenerife players Serie A players AS Roma players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Italy 20th-century Spanish sportsmen