Miquel Garro Gomila (born 20 September 1975) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. He played 38 total games for

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

, including 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 ...

and the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, and won the

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

. He retired aged 29 after one season at

Ciudad de Murcia Club de Fútbol Ciudad de Murcia, usually abbreviated to Ciudad de Murcia, was a Spanish football club based in Murcia, in the namesake autonomous community. They played at the 16,000-seater ''Estadio de La Condomina''. Ciudad Murcia was reloc ...

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 ...

and later worked as a goalkeeping coach for clubs including Mallorca.

Playing career

Born in

Palma de Mallorca Palma (, ; ), also known as Palma de Mallorca (officially between 1983 and 1988, 2006–2008, and 2012–2016), is the capital and largest city of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is ...

, Garro began his career at hometown club

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (, , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or RCD Mallorca, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Palma de Mallorca, ...

. Having played for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

in the

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 ...

, where he was also loaned to Binéfar, he made his first-team debut on 1 July 2000 in the

first round First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

of 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 ...

, a 1–0 home win over Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț of Romania; a week later the team lost 3–1 in the second leg and were eliminated. New manager

Luis Aragonés Luis Aragonés Suárez (; 28 July 1938 – 1 February 2014) was a Spanish football player and manager. Aragonés spent the majority of his career as a player and coach at Atlético Madrid. He was a prominent player and then coach of the succes ...

was not interested in the tournament, so the reserves coached by

Juan Ramón López Caro Juan Ramón López Caro (; born 23 March 1963) is a Spanish football manager. He managed Real Madrid and Levante in La Liga, as well as Celta and Real Madrid Castilla in the Segunda División. After a spell in charge of Spain under-21 he mov ...

contested the tie. Garro made his

debut on 22 April 2001 when regular goalkeeper

Leo Franco Leonardo "Leo" Neoren Franco (born 20 May 1977) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. After starting out at Independiente in 1995, he went on to spend the vast majority of his career in Spain, playing 328 L ...

suffered a muscular injury after 20 minutes away to

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 ( ...

, a 2–2 draw. At the start of the following season, he faced competition from another Argentinian,

Carlos Roa Carlos Ángel Roa (born 15 August 1969) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the goalkeeper coach of Greek Super League club AEK Athens. Most of his professional career was spent with Racing ...

. On 30 October, he made his

debut as the team won 1–0 at home to Panathinaikos in the final group game, therefore qualifying for the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. In 2002–03, Mallorca won the

. Garro played the 1–0 win at Gramenet in the round of 64 and both legs of the 6–3 win over

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid (), is a Spanish professional List of football clubs in Spain, football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León that will compete from the 2025–26 season in the . The club ...

in the last 16, but Franco played in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

win over

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 ...

Elche Elche (, ; , , , ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. According to 2024's data, Elche has a population of 234,800 inhabitants,

. Weeks earlier, Garro played the fixture against

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

at the

Camp Nou Camp Nou (), meaning ''New Field'' and often referred to in English as the Nou Camp, is a stadium in Barcelona and the home of La Liga club FC Barcelona since its opening in 1957. It is currently undergoing renovation, and with a planned increa ...

for the third consecutive season, due to the death of Franco's mother; his team won 2–1. Garro played five games for Mallorca in the

2003–04 UEFA Cup The 2003–04 UEFA Cup was won by Valencia in the final against Marseille. It wrapped up a league and UEFA Cup double for Valencia. Porto could not defend their title as they automatically qualified for the 2003–04 UEFA Champions League and a ...

, including both legs of a 3–1 aggregate win over Spartak Moscow in the last 32 in which his team won 3–0 in the first game in the Russian capital. In the second leg of the next round, he played in a much-changed squad that had already lost 4–1 away to

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

, and conceded three more goals to be eliminated. Subsequently, Mallorca planned to have

Miguel Ángel Moyá Miguel Ángel Moyá Rumbo (; born 2 April 1984) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played 274 La Liga games over 15 seasons, representing in the competition Mallorca, Valencia, Getafe, Atlético Madrid an ...

and

Alberto Cifuentes Alberto Cifuentes Martínez (born 29 May 1979) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, currently manager of CF Villanovense. Playing career Born in Albacete, Castilla–La Mancha, Cifuentes started playing as a ...

as goalkeepers, while selling Franco and releasing Garro; the latter was not pleased that the club then signed a higher-earning third goalkeeper in Sander Westerveld. On 20 July 2004, Garro signed for newly promoted

club

on a one-year deal. He turned down an extension, and approaches from

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

and Hércules did not materialise; in September 2005, the 29-year-old retired.

Coaching career

Garro worked as a goalkeeping coach at Mallorca in the 2010s. He had the same job at

Beijing Renhe Beijing Chengfeng Football Club ( zh, s=北京橙丰, t=北京橙丰, p=Běijīng Chéngfēng) was a professional Chinese football club that last participated in the Chinese League One under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). ...

under compatriot Luis García, winning promotion to the

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

. In 2021, he was assigned the same post in Spain's under-17 and under-18 national teams.

Personal life

Garro's father of the same name, who died in 2012, was the president of RCD Mallorca's federation of fan clubs.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garro, Miki 1975 births Living people Men's association football goalkeepers Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Palma de Mallorca RCD Mallorca B players RCD Mallorca players CD Binéfar players Ciudad de Murcia footballers La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Spanish expatriate sportspeople in China