David Mateos Ramajo (born 22 April 1987) is a Spanish 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 plays 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 ...

for Chinese club Jiangxi Dingnan United.

Club career

Real Madrid

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 ...

, Mateos joined

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 at the age of 12. In the 2007–08 season he made his senior debut, playing that and the following two years with the B team in the

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

. In late January 2010, Mateos was called to the main squad by

Manuel Pellegrini Manuel Luis Pellegrini Ripamonti (; ; born 16 September 1953) is a Chilean professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the head coach of Real Betis. As a coach, he has managed clubs in S ...

for a

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 ...

match 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 ...

. On 3 April that year, he also made the final list for the game against

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Spain, Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spani ...

, but failed to leave the bench on either occasion. During the

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 ...

pre-season, Real Madrid's first-team coach,

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

, said: The coach's statements instigated Real Madrid to sign the player to a professional contract and, subsequently, Mateos was called for the first match of the campaign against

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

. After the departure of

Rafael van der Vaart Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart (; born 11 February 1983) is a Dutch former professional association football, footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Van der Vaart began his career at AFC Ajax, Ajax's Ajax Youth Academy, youth academ ...

and

Royston Drenthe Royston Ricky Drenthe (born 8 April 1987) is a Dutch former professional association football, footballer. Although primarily a left winger, he has also played as a left-back. Drenthe started his professional career with Eredivisie side Feyenoor ...

, to

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

and Hércules respectively, he was promoted to the first team, being awarded the number 15 shirt previously worn by the latter. Mateos made his official debut for Real Madrid on 23 November 2010, playing ten minutes in the 4–0 away win over

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

; after the match, he said: "I will never forget this day." His last competitive appearance came the following 6 January when he started the 2–0 loss at Levante in the

round of 16 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

of the

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 ...

, with his side eventually claiming the trophy. On 29 January 2011,

AEK Athens A.E.K. (; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica. The club is more commonly known in European competitions as A.E.K. Athens. Establishe ...

signed Mateos on a six-month contract with the option of retaining the player for an extra year. In the summer, however, he moved to

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

also on loan for one season, making his top-flight debut on 11 September in a 0–0 draw at

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 ...

, but the spell was marred by injury. In June 2012, Mateos accepted a return to Castilla for

2012–13 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 reserves had promoted 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 ...

after an absence of five years.

Ferencváros

On 2 September 2013, Mateos signed for Hungarian club

Ferencváros Ferencváros (, ) is the 9th district of Budapest (), Hungary. Name The southern suburb of Pest was named after King Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Francis I on 4 December 1792 when he was crowned king of Hungary. History The developmen ...

. He scored two goals in 21 games in his first season, helping his team to third position.

Orlando City

On 29 July 2015, Mateos joined Orlando City of the

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

, with

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

Paul McDonough describing him as a "well-versed" player who he expected to "make an impact right away". He was waived on 3 March 2017.

Murcia

In August 2017, Mateos signed for Spanish third-tier

Real Murcia Real Murcia Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., commonly known as Real Murcia (, "Royal Murcia"), is a Spanish football club based in Murcia, in the Región de Murcia. Founded in 1919, it currently plays in , playing home matches at Estadio Nueva Condo ...

. He scored his sole goal on 17 March 2018, opening an eventual 2–1 away defeat of Granada B.

Israel

Mateos then took is game to Israel. He represented in quick succession Hapoel Hadera and

Hapoel Ra'anana Hapoel Ra'anana Association Football Club (, ''Amutat Hapoel Ra'anana Mahleket Kaduregel'') is an Israeli football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to s ...

(both in the

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 ...

), dropping down to the

Liga Leumit The Israeli Liga Leumit (, HaLiga HaLeumit, ) is the second division of the professional Israeli association football (soccer) league system. This second-tier league is placed directly below the Israeli Premier League. Structure There are 16 ...

with Hapoel Umm al-Fahm for

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Later career

On 22 October 2021, Mateos joined

The Strongest Club The Strongest is a Bolivian professional football club based in La Paz, that currently plays in the Bolivian Primera División. Founded in 1908, their team colours are yellow and black. Although they have a home ground, Estadio Rafael Me ...

in the

Bolivian Primera División The División de Fútbol Profesional is the top-flight professional football league in Bolivia. In 2017 it replaced the "Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano" (; ). Since 1950, a total of 16 clubs have been crowned champions of the Bolivian foot ...

. He switched to

China League One The Chinese Football League 1 (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (), is the second level of professional football in China, under the Chinese Super League. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association ...

ahead of the 2022 season, with newly promoted

Guangxi Pingguo Haliao Guangxi Pingguo Football Club (; ) is a Chinese professional Association football, football club based in Pingguo, Guangxi, that competes in . Guangxi Pingguo plays its home matches at the Pingguo Stadium, located within Pingguo. Founded in 2018 ...

Career statistics

Honours

Real Madrid *

AEK Athens *

Greek Football Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

Ferencváros *

Magyar Kupa The Hungarian Cup (, ), officially known as MOL Magyar Kupa for sponsorship reasons, is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association'','' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of ...

: 2014–15 *

Ligakupa The Hungarian League Cup () was an annual football tournament contested by clubs in the Hungarian League. It was created in 2007 and the competition only lasted for 8 seasons, being cancelled ahead of the 2015–16 season. Ligakupa finals The pe ...

: 2014–15

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mateos, David 1987 births Living people 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football central defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Segunda Federación players Real Madrid C footballers Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players Real Zaragoza players Real Murcia CF players CD Móstoles URJC players Super League Greece players AEK Athens F.C. players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Ferencvárosi TC footballers Major League Soccer players Orlando City SC players Israeli Premier League players Liga Leumit players Hapoel Hadera F.C. players Hapoel Ra'anana A.F.C. players Hapoel Umm al-Fahm F.C. players Bolivian Primera División players The Strongest players China League One players Guangxi Pingguo F.C. players Jiangxi Dingnan United F.C. players Spain men's youth international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Expatriate men's footballers in Bolivia Expatriate men's footballers in China Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Greece Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Israel Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Bolivia Spanish expatriate sportspeople in China