Ander Murillo García (born 22 July 1983) 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 defender. He is the current assistant manager of Athletic Bilbao B. He spent most of his career with

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

and

AEK Larnaca AEK Larnaca FC (, "Athletic Union Kition (ancient state), Kition of Larnaca") is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional association football, football club based in Larnaca. The club was formed in 1994 after a merger of two historical Larnaca clubs, EP ...

, appearing in 157 competitive matches with the former over nine seasons and 184 for the latter in seven.

Club career

Athletic Bilbao

Murillo was born in

San Sebastián San Sebastián, officially known by the bilingual name Donostia / San Sebastián (, ), is a city and municipality located in the Basque Autonomous Community, Spain. It lies on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, from the France–Spain border ...

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

. A product of

's prolific youth system, he made his debut for their first team on 24 November 2001, in a 2–1 away win against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

; he played a further 18

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 ...

games the following season, after breaking his leg during preseason. From

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, Murillo would be an important defensive element for the ''Lions'', being deployed as a

right-back 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 ...

or in the middle, but he suffered greatly with injuries subsequently. On 21 December 2008, after nearly a year without competitive appearances, he started in the 1–0 away victory over

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

only to leave the pitch before

half-time In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...

injured. On 11 August 2009, after only two matches during the 2008–09 campaign, Murillo moved to

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 ...

side

UD Salamanca Unión Deportiva Salamanca, S.A.D. () was a historical Spanish football team based in Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 February 1923 and nicknamed ''Los Charros'', the club played in white shirts and black ...

in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

-long move. In late August 2010 he terminated his Athletic contract and left the club after 11 years, signing with

RC Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta Vigo, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), the club was fou ...

also of the second tier.

AEK Larnaca

Having joined in the summer of 2011 at the age of 28, Murillo went on to play several years with AEK Larnaca FC in the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

, as part of a large contingent of Spanish players and managers at the side. He helped the club finish second in the league table for three consecutive seasons between

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, their highest-ever placings; his final professional match was the 2018 Cypriot Cup final which was won 2–1 against

Apollon Limassol FC Apollon Limassol FC (, ''Apollon Lemesou'') is a Cyprus, Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has Association football, football, Apollon Limassol B.C., basketball and volleyball teams. Founded in 1954, Apollon FC currently plays in the Cyp ...

(the scorer of the winning goal being another Spanish veteran, Acorán), to collect their first silverware since lifting the same trophy in 2004. In June 2018, Murillo retired and was named AEK's

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an senior management, executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many typ ...

as longtime Athletic Bilbao teammate Andoni Iraola signed as manager.

Personal life

Murillo's father Luciano and his uncle Eliseo were also footballers and defenders who played for

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

, having moved to San Sebastián at a young age from

Extremadura Extremadura ( ; ; ; ; Fala language, Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is a landlocked autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, Spain, Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central- ...

Career statistics

Honours

AEK Larnaca *

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup, formally known as the Cypriot Coca-Cola Cup of First and Second Division () for sponsorship purposes, is a Cypriot knockout football club competition, hosted annually by the Cyprus Football Association. First held in 1934, it i ...

: 2017–18 Spain U19 *

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-19, is an annual football competition, contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain is the most successful team in this competit ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Murillo, Ander 1983 births Living people 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from San Sebastián Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Antiguoko players Athletic Bilbao B footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers UD Salamanca players RC Celta de Vigo players Cypriot First Division players AEK Larnaca FC players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Basque Country men's international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Spanish football managers Spanish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Cyprus Athletic Bilbao non-playing staff