Javier Artero López (born 16 April 1975) 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

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. After playing for five teams in the lower leagues of his country he joined

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

in Scotland, spending two years with the club before being forced to retire at only 27, due to illness.

Career

Early years

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 ...

, Artero started playing football with local amateurs

Moscardó Moscardó is an administrative neighborhood (''barrio'') of Madrid belonging to the district of Usera Usera is a district of Madrid, Spain. It lies on the southern (right) bank of the Manzanares. It is home to about 10% of the Chinese citize ...

. In 1995 he signed with

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 ...

, but never made it past the C team, also being loaned to another club in the community,

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 ...

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 ...

, and appearing very rarely over the course of his only season. Subsequently, Artero dropped down to

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 ...

and joined

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

, helping 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 to return to the second tier after which he signed for another side in that league,

Badajoz Badajoz is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portugal, Portuguese Portugal–Spain border, border, on the left bank of the river ...

. He scored his only goal as a professional in his country on 29 November 1998, the only in an away win against

Albacete Albacete ( , , ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the area around the city is known as Los Llan ...

Dundee

In 1999, Artero moved abroad to

San Lorenzo San Lorenzo is the Italian and Spanish name for Saint Lawrence, the 3rd-century Christian martyr, and may refer to: Places Argentina * San Lorenzo, Santa Fe * San Lorenzo Department, Chaco * Villa San Lorenzo, town and municipality in Salta P ...

from Argentina. From March–May of the following year he was loaned to

of the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

, with the deal being made permanent on 1 July for £300,000, a club record. On the 30th, he scored in a 2–0 away victory over

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

. Artero contributed one goal to a 5–0 home defeat of St Mirren on 18 November 2000. He enjoyed his best years as a professional with the Dark Blues, appearing in 75 competitive games with the side and helping them to the sixth place in his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

, with the subsequent

qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

for the

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

. On 1 August 2001, the 26-year-old Artero was admitted to hospital with an unknown disease, which was revealed to be

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

early into the following month. Even though he was still able to take part in some matches in the 2001–02 season, he was forced to retire from football in August 2002, being immediately named Dundee's international

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

. Artero worked as a football analyst after retiring, being a co-commentator on

Real Madrid TV Real Madrid TV is a free digital television channel, operated by Real Madrid specialising in the Spanish football club. The channel is available in Spanish and English. It is located at Ciudad Real Madrid in Valdebebas, Real Madrid's training c ...

.Javier Artero: “No me importaba dejar el fútbol; sólo pensaba en vivir” (Javier Artero: "I did not mind leaving football; I only thought about living")
La Galerna, 11 November 2016 (in Spanish)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Artero, Javier 1975 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football midfielders Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Real Madrid C footballers CD Leganés players Málaga CF players CD Badajoz players Argentine Primera División players San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers Scottish Premier League players Dundee F.C. players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland People with multiple sclerosis