Diego Espejo de la Concepción (born 18 August 2002) is a Spanish

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 ...

currently playing as a defender for Osasuna B in the

Primera Federación The Primera Federación, officially the Primera Federación Versus e-Learning for sponsorship reasons (formerly known as Primera RFEF). is the third tier of the Spanish football league system beginning with the 2021–22 season. It is administe ...

Early life

Born in

Santa Cruz de Tenerife Santa Cruz de Tenerife (; locally ), commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz, is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and one of the capitals of the Canary Islands, along with Las Palmas. Santa Cruz has a ...

, Espejo began playing youth football with local teams in Tranvía and Chincanayro. his youth career with

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

. In 2016, he joined the Atlético Madrid youth system. In 2019, he scored a notable

bicycle kick In association football, a bicycle kick, also known as an overhead kick or scissors kick, is an acrobatic strike where a player kicks an airborne ball rearward in midair. It is achieved by throwing the body backward up into the air and, before ...

goal in a youth match against

Leganés Leganés () is a city in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Considered part of the Madrid metropolitan area, it is located about 11 km southwest of the centre of Madrid. , it has a population of 188,425, making it the region's fifth most popu ...

Club career

In July 2021, he joined

Atlético Madrid B Atlético de Madrid B is a Spanish football team based in Madrid. Founded on 17 September 1963, it is the reserve team of Atlético Madrid and currently plays in Primera Federación – Group 2. They play their home games at Cerro del Espin ...

in the Tercera División RFEF, where he made a few bench appearances, but did not appear in a match. In February 2022, he signed a contract extension with

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

through, prior to being loaned out to their affiliate club,

Atlético Ottawa Atlético Ottawa is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Ottawa, Ontario. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League and plays its home games at TD Place. The team was founded in 2020 by Spanish club Atlético Madrid. History F ...

in the

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; ) is a professional Association football, soccer league in Canada and the highest level of the Canadian soccer league system. The league comprises eight teams, from five of provinces and territories of ...

for the 2022 season. In 2022, he led the league in headed clearances with 80 and finished second in total clearances with 114. After the season, his loan was extended for another year, with it also being announced that he would trial with

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 ...

club

Inter Miami CF Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami (), commonly referred to as Inter Miami, is an American professional soccer club based in the Miami metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (M ...

in January, before joining Ottawa for pre-season. Espejo returned to

after his season-long loan expired in November 2023. In January 2024, Espejo was loaned to

Segunda Federación Segunda Federación, previously called Segunda RFEF, also officially known as Segunda B, is the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system containing 90 teams divided into five groups. It is administered by the Royal Spanish Football Fede ...

club

Orihuela Orihuela (; ''Corpus Toponímic Valencià''. Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua. 2009, València.) is a city and municipality located at the foot of the Sierra de Orihuela mountains in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain. The c ...

for the remainder of the season. On 4 February 2024, he scored a brace in a 2-1 victory over

El Palo EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

. In August 2024, Espejo joined Osasuna B in the

through June 2026, with an option to extend for an additional two seasons.

International career

In 2016, he was named to the Canary Islands regional U16 team. In 2018, he was called up to the Spain U17 team, where he earned two caps.

Honours

Atlético Ottawa **

Regular season:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Career statistics

;Notes

References

External links

Diego Espejo
at La Preferente (in Spanish) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Espejo, Diego 2002 births Living people Footballers from Santa Cruz de Tenerife Spanish men's footballers Spain men's youth international footballers Men's association football defenders Canadian Premier League players CD Tenerife players Atlético Madrid footballers Atlético Ottawa players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Orihuela CF players Segunda Federación players CA Osasuna B players 21st-century Spanish sportsmen