Miguel Albiol Tortajada (; born 2 September 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 mainly as a

right midfielder 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. ...

. In a 16-year career, he amassed

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 ...

totals of 178 matches and two goals over seven seasons, in representation of three clubs. In

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 ...

, he appeared for

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

Club career

Born in

Vilamarxant Vilamarxant () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Camp de Túria in the Valencian Community, Spain. Notable people *Raúl Albiol, (born 4 September 1985) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Villarreal CF V ...

Valencian Community The Valencian Community is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wit ...

, Albiol was a product of hometown

's youth ranks as younger brother

Raúl Raul, Raúl, Raül, and Raüll are forms of a common first name in Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Galician, Asturian, Basque, Aragonese, and Catalan. The name is cognate of the Anglo-Germanic given name Ralph or Rudolph and the French R ...

after him, and played once with its first team, during 2002–03's

. He finished that season in the

with

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 ...

, featuring regularly '' en route'' to the club's promotion. Released by the ''Che'', Albiol spent a further year with

Recreativo de Huelva Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Huelva, Andalucia, Spain. Founded on 23 December 1889, they are the oldest football club in Spain, and currently play in , holding home ...

(also second tier), then had a steady period with

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 ...

. He was instrumental in the latter side's 2008 promotion to division two, after four consecutive playoff failures. In July 2009, apparently after having everything arranged with Hércules, Albiol agreed on a return move to Murcia, signing for three years. He appeared in 30 games in his first season – 22 starts – which ended in second-division relegation.

Personal life

Albiol's younger brother,

, was also a footballer. He represented with success Valencia,

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 ...

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

and the Spain national team.

References

External links

*
CiberChe stats and bio
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Albiol, Miguel 1981 births Living people People from Camp de Túria 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Province of Valencia Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Valencia CF Mestalla footballers Valencia CF players Real Murcia CF players Recreativo de Huelva players Rayo Vallecano players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers