David Cobeño Iglesias (; born 6 April 1982) is a Spanish football executive who is the

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 ...

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 ...

club

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in the Villa de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish foot ...

and a 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 ...

Playing career

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 ...

, Cobeño graduated from the youth academy of local

. After one season with lowly

SD Ponferradina Sociedad Deportiva Ponferradina, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Ponferrada, in the El Bierzo region, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 7 June 1922, it plays in Primera Federación - Group 1, holding home ma ...

he was bought by

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 ...

, spending the 2005–06 campaign in

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 ...

with its B team. After good performances, Cobeño moved to

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, that competes in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. The club was formed on 25 January ...

. Initially backing up Andrés Palop, he benefited from an injury to the first-choice during a March 2007 home win over

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 ...

and went on to make four full additional appearances, adding three in 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' victorious run in the

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 ...

. In 2007–08, Cobeño was loaned to neighbouring – and

newcomers –

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish professional football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as ''Almería Club de Fútbol'' until 2001 ...

. After starting the season as the starting goalkeeper, he lost the job to Brazilian Diego Alves, only reappearing for two of the side's last three games; subsequently, he was released by Sevilla and returned to Rayo on a three-year deal, as the

club promoted again to the second level. On 24 May 2009, Cobeño scored from his own goal, opening the score in an eventual 1–2 home loss against

Elche CF Elche Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional football club based in Elche, Province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community, Spain. Founded in 1923, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025–26 season, holding home matches at ...

. During his first season in his second spell he was the team's undisputed starter as they eventually retained their league status, and won the

Ricardo Zamora Trophy The Zamora Trophy () is a football award, established by Spanish newspaper '' Marca'' in 1958. The award goes to the goalkeeper who has the lowest "goals-to-games" ratio.Similar to goals against average in ice hockey or earned run average in b ...

for the campaign (38 goals conceded).Cobeño se hizo con el Zamora (Cobeño got Zamora)
Rayo Herald, 22 June 2009 (in Spanish) 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 ...

, Cobeño continued as Rayo's first choice, only missing four league matches in 42 and helping the club return to the top division after eight years. In the summer of 2012, after not renewing his contract, he moved abroad and signed for

FC Vaslui Fotbal Club Vaslui, commonly known as FC Vaslui, or simply as Vaslui (), was a Romanian professional football club based in Vaslui, Vaslui County, founded in 2002 and dissolved in 2014. Its official club colours were yellow and green, hence t ...

in Romania, but returned to ''

Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas (originally Nuevo Estadio de Vallecas and previously Estadio Teresa Rivero) is a football stadium in the Madrid district of Puente de Vallecas, Spain. It currently hosts football matches and is the home of Primera Di ...

'' after only two months having failed to adjust.

Post-retirement

On 1 June 2016, aged 34, Cobeño retired and was immediately appointed as Rayo's

.Cobeño será el nuevo director deportivo del Rayo (Cobeño will be the new director of football of Rayo)
Marca, 1 June 2016 (in Spanish)

Career statistics

Honours

Club

Sevilla *

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

: 2006–07 *

: 2006–07

Individual

(

): 2008–09

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cobeno, David 1982 births Living people Footballers from Madrid Spanish men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Rayo Vallecano B players SD Ponferradina players Real Madrid C footballers Real Madrid Castilla footballers Sevilla FC players UEFA Europa League–winning players UD Almería players Rayo Vallecano players 21st-century Spanish sportsmen