Joseba del Olmo García (born 20 June 1981) 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

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

Club career

Del Olmo was born in

Barakaldo Barakaldo (; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the Biscay province in the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country in Spain. Located on the Left Bank (Biscay), Left Bank of the Estuary of Bilbao, the city is pa ...

Biscay Biscay ( ; ; ), is a province of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the Bay of Biscay, eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilb ...

. From 1999 to 2004 he played in the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

lower leagues (

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

or lower), subsequently representing

Barakaldo CF Barakaldo Club de Fútbol is a Basque football team based in Barakaldo, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Founded in 1917 it plays in , holding home stadium is '' Lasesarre'', with a 7,960 Seat Capacity. History Barakaldo pla ...

and

Sestao River Club Sestao River Club is a Spanish football team based in Sestao, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1996 it plays in , hosting home games at ''Estadio Las Llanas'', with a capacity of 8,905 seats. History ''Sestao River Club ...

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 2007–08, del Olmo played 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 ...

for the first time in his career, with

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in ) is a Spanish football league teams, Spanish professional football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the men’s te ...

. At the end of the season, regional neighbours

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

paid the

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

300,000 buyout clause in his contract and, on 13 June 2008, he signed a one-year deal which included automatic renewal for another year if he appeared in a minimum of 22 official games as well as a buyout clause of €20 million; he was officially presented four days later. After an unspectacular campaign which included a spell out with a fractured

ulna The ulna or ulnar bone (: ulnae or ulnas) is a long bone in the forearm stretching from the elbow to the wrist. It is on the same side of the forearm as the little finger, running parallel to the Radius (bone), radius, the forearm's other long ...

and did not feature enough appearances to trigger the contract extension del Olmo was released by Athletic and returned to the second level, agreeing to a two-year deal with

Hércules CF Hércules de Alicante Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team in Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded on 25 October 1922, it currently plays in Primera Federación and plays its home games ...

.Del Olmo refuerza al Hércules
el Olmo bolsters Hércules

Diario AS ''Diario AS'' () (sometime stylized as ''AS'' or ''As''; ) is a Spanish daily sports newspaper that concentrates particularly on association football. Profile ''Diario AS'' is part of PRISA which also owns ''El País'' and ''Cinco Días''. The ...

, 3 July 2009 (in Spanish) Although he rarely started and did not find the net throughout the 2009–10 season, he did appear in 20 matches as the

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

side returned to the top flight after 13 years. However, he did not get another opportunity to play at that level, instead being loaned to

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 ...

who suffered relegation at the end of the

2010–11 Segunda División The 2010–11 Segunda División season (known as the Liga Adelante for sponsorship reasons) was the 80th since its establishment. The first matches of the season were played on 27 August 2010, the regular league ended on 4 June 2011, and the sea ...

campaign (Hércules also went straight back down). He later had another spell at Eibar, helping them to gain promotion from the third tier in 2012–13, albeit he only started two of the 11 fixtures in which he appeared, and the following year stayed down at the same level with CD Laudio but was unable to prevent the

Álava Álava () or Araba (), officially Araba/Álava, is a Provinces of Spain, province of Spain and a historical territory of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country, heir of the ancient Basque señoríos#Lords of Álava, Lordship ...

minnows' relegation. He spent a final season back in the Tercera División at CD Lagun Onak.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Olmo, Joseba Del 1981 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Barakaldo Men's association football wingers La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Arenas Club de Getxo footballers SD Lemona footballers Barakaldo CF footballers Sestao River Club footballers SD Eibar footballers Athletic Bilbao footballers Hércules CF players SD Ponferradina players CD Laudio players 21st-century Spanish sportsmen