Javier del Pino González (born 10 July 1980) is a Spanish former

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He spent the better part of his 18-year professional career with Numancia (11 seasons), appearing in 298 competitive matches and scoring 49 goals.

Club career

Del Pino was 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 ...

. An

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 ...

academy graduate, he managed to appear once for the first team whilst they were in the

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 ...

, playing five minutes in a 4–2 home win against

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 ...

on 6 April 2002. After three seasons with

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 ...

(also in the second tier), del Pino moved to

CD Numancia Club Deportivo Numancia de Soria, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club in Soria, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 April 1945, it plays in , holding home games at '' Nuevo Estadio Los Pajaritos''. Besides football it ...

, where he was an important element in helping the club return to the top flight in 2008 after a three-year absence. He made his

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 ...

debut on 31 August of that year at the age of 28 years and one month, coming on as a substitute against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

in a 1–0 home win. The team were eventually relegated after ranking second-bottom, and he scored a career-best nine goals the following campaign – best in the squad – but the

Soria Soria () is a municipality and a Spanish city, located on the Douro river in the east of the autonomous community of Castile and León and capital of the province of Soria. Its population is 38,881 ( INE, 2017), 43.7% of the provincial populatio ...

ns failed to regain their lost status. On 1 June 2016, del Pino announced he would retire at the end of the season. His last appearance occurred three days later at the age of 35, a 2–0 home victory over already relegated

Albacete Balompié Albacete Balompié is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Albacete, in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Founded on 5 July 1939, it currently plays in Segunda División, the second tier of Spanish foo ...

."Oh Capitán, mi Capitán", Del Pino se despide con victoria ("Oh Captain, my Captain", Del Pino says goodbye with win)

Vavel Vavel (stylized VAVEL) is a Spain-based sports news website. It has 8 editions; Spain, United States, United Kingdom, France, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Mexico, and Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country p ...

, 5 June 2016 (in Spanish)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pino, Javier Del 1980 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Atlético Madrid C players Atlético Madrid B players CF Rayo Majadahonda players Atlético Madrid footballers Xerez CD footballers CD Numancia players 21st-century Spanish sportsmen