Abraham Paz Cruz (born 29 June 1979) is a Spanish former 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 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 ...

, currently

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

of St Joseph's in the

Gibraltar National League The Gibraltar Football League is the only senior tier of association football in Gibraltar, founded in 2019 as the Gibraltar National League after a merger of the Gibraltar Premier Division, which served as the top division of football on the ...

Playing career

Born in

El Puerto de Santa María El Puerto de Santa María (), locally known as El Puerto and historically in English as Port Saint Mary, is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain located on the banks of the Guadalete River in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia. , the c ...

Province of Cádiz Cádiz is a Provinces of Spain, province of southern Spain, in the southwestern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is the southernmost part of mainland Spain, as well as the southernmost part of ...

, Paz began his career his professional with the reserves of local club

Cádiz CF Cádiz Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a Spanish professional football club based in Cádiz, Andalusia. Founded in 1910, the club competes in Segunda División, holding home games at Nuevo Mirandilla, with a seating capacity of 20,724. Salvadoran ...

, his stint then also being punctuated by a loan to hometown's Racing Club Portuense. He was definitely reinstated in the first team in 2000, going on to represent them in all three major divisions (including 22 games and one goal in 2005–06's

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 ...

). Paz joined

Hércules CF Hércules de Alicante Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team in Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded on 25 October 1922, it currently plays in Primera Federación and plays its home games ...

of 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 ...

in the summer of 2008. He contributed 31 matches and two goals in his second season, as the

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

side returned to the top division after a 13-year absence. On 12 December 2010, during a 4–1 home win against

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, who compete in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system, following the ...

, Paz became the first Spanish scorer for Hércules in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, as the campaign ended in immediate relegation. From 2011 to 2013 he competed in the second tier, representing

FC Cartagena Fútbol Club Cartagena, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Cartagena, in the Region of Murcia, Spain. Founded in 1995 it currently plays in Segunda División, holding home games at '' Estadio Cartagonova'', with a capacity of 15,105 sp ...

and

CE Sabadell FC Centre d'Esports Sabadell Futbol Club, S.A.D. () is a historical List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Sabadell ( Catalonia) Founded in 1903, its first men's team plays in the . Its first CE Sabadell (women), women's tea ...

and suffering relegation with the former. On 16 July 2013, aged 34, Paz moved abroad for the very first time, signing a two-year contract with

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

i club Bnei Sakhnin FC– he had just been banned from playing in his country while investigations were carried out to determine whether or not he was involved in

match fixing In organized sports, match fixing (also known as game fixing, race fixing, throwing, rigging, hippodroming, or more generally sports fixing) is the act of playing or officiating a contest with the intention of achieving a predetermined result, v ...

when he represented Hércules. During his spell in the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

, he was also loaned to fellow

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

team

Maccabi Haifa FC Maccabi Haifa Football Club () is an Israeli professional football club based in the city of Haifa, Israel, a section of Maccabi Haifa sports club. The club plays in the Israeli Premier League. Maccabi Haifa home games are played at Sammy Ofer ...

; ultimately, he was acquitted of any wrongdoing. In January 2019, Paz joined

St Joseph's F.C. St Joseph's Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Gibraltar. Founded in 1912, it currently plays in the Gibraltar National League, Gibraltar Football League. The club also has two futsal teams and more tha ...

of the

Gibraltar Premier Division The Gibraltar Premier Division was a football league established by the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) in 1905, and the top tier of football in Gibraltar. It originally contained eight member clubs, but it has grown over the years. In 1 ...

on a short-team deal.

Coaching career

Shortly after retiring, Paz became assistant manager at

Atlético Sanluqueño CF Atlético Sanluqueño Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team based in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Province of Cádiz, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1948, although its registration in official competitions took place in 195 ...

. He had his first head coach job on 8 June 2022, being appointed at former side St Joseph's.

Career statistics

Honours

Cádiz *

: 2004–05

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paz, Abraham 1979 births Living people Sportspeople from El Puerto de Santa María Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Province of Cádiz Men's association football central defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Cádiz CF Mirandilla players Cádiz CF players Racing Club Portuense players Hércules CF players FC Cartagena footballers CE Sabadell FC footballers Israeli Premier League players Bnei Sakhnin F.C. players Maccabi Haifa F.C. players Gibraltar Premier Division players St Joseph's F.C. players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Expatriate men's footballers in Gibraltar Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Israel Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Gibraltar Spanish football managers Spanish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Gibraltar