Antonio "Toni" Lechuga Mateos (born 15 February 1988) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Club career

Born in

Jerez de la Frontera Jerez de la Frontera () or simply Jerez, also cited in old English-language sources as , is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality in the province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Sp ...

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 ...

, Toni started his career with hometown's

Xerez CD Xerez Club Deportivo S. A. D. is a Spanish association football, football club based in the city of Jerez de la Frontera. It was founded in 1947 and plays in . History Due to the link between Jerez de la Frontera and the United Kingdom created b ...

, playing several seasons with the reserves, the first being 2006–07 in the

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

. In late 2008 he was called up to train with the first team, but again only appeared officially for the B side. Toni served as third-choice – backing up Renan and Chema in the 2009–10 campaign and playing understudy to Chema and Francisco Lledó 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 ...

– in the following years. On 6 April 2011 he renewed his contract with the

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

ns, extending his link to the club until 2014. On 20 May 2012, Toni made his debut as a professional, appearing in a 3–2

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 ...

home win against

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña () or simply Depor, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, that competes in the Segunda División, the ...

. He was promoted to backup the next season, starting the first seven matches as it ended in relegation. Toni spent the 2013–14 campaign 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 ...

with

Doxa Katokopias FC Doxa Katokopias FC () is a Cypriot professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word) ...

. He returned to his country subsequently, seeing out his career in the lower leagues and amateur football.Toni Lechuga, nuevo portero para el Real Jaén (Toni Lechuga, new goalkeeper for Real Jaén)
El Deporte de Jaén, 18 November 2021 (in Spanish)

Club statistics

References

External links

* * * 1988 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Jerez de la Frontera Men's association football goalkeepers Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Tercera Federación players Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol players Xerez CD B players Xerez CD footballers CD Guadalajara (Spain) footballers Burgos CF footballers Arcos CF players México FC (Spain) players Internacional de Madrid players Real Jaén footballers Cypriot First Division players Doxa Katokopias FC players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus 21st-century Spanish sportsmen {{Spain-footy-goalkeeper-stub