Victoriano Rivas Álvaro (; born 7 July 1980), known as Nano , is a Spanish retired 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

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

, currently

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

of CU Collado Villalba. He appeared in 138

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 ...

matches over seven seasons while scoring ten goals, mainly in representation of Betis (three years) and Levante (two). He also represented in the competition

Getafe Getafe () is a municipalities in Spain, municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city c ...

and

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

Playing career

Born in

Ciudad Real Ciudad Real (, ) is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region. It was founded as Villa Real in 1255 as a ro ...

Castilla–La Mancha Castilla–La Mancha (, ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Comprising the provinces of Province of Albacete, Albacete, Province of Ciudad Real, Ciudad Real, Province of Cuenca, Cuenca, Province of Guadalajar ...

, Nano made his professional debut with

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 ...

's reserves, spending two full seasons with 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 ...

side. In 2002–03 he was loaned to

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. They compete in La Liga, the top tier of the Football in Spain, Spanish football. The team has pla ...

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 ...

, before moving to the club on a permanent deal in summer 2003; an undisputed starter with the

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 ...

outskirts team, he scored four goals in 37 games in the 2004–05 campaign, their first ever in

. Nano joined

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

in July 2005. He was set to have a promising season before being injured in 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 ...

group-stage fixture against Chelsea at the Manuel Ruiz de Lopera on 1 November, in his only appearance in the competition, as he was sidelined for five months; he also featured once in 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 ...

and made 14 league appearances 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 ...

, playing a further 21 matches for a side that finished 16th in 2006–07. Established as first-choice alongside veteran

Juanito Juanito is a given name or nickname, meaning "Little Juan" or Johnny. Notable people with the name include: Professional footballers * Juan Ignacio Gomez Taleb (born 1985), Argentinian forward * Juan Díaz Sánchez (1948–2013), Spanish forw ...

in the 2007–08 campaign, Nano scored in the first matchday against

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 ...

(1–1 away draw), but suffered a severe knee injury against

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña () or simply Depor, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, that competes in the Segunda División, the ...

on 16 September 2007, which made him miss six months. Upon return from injury, he netted another important goal for 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, in a 1–1 draw at former club Getafe on 18 May 2008. On 1 September 2008, a one-year loan deal was agreed as Nano joined

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 a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

-long move. He appeared scarcely throughout his spell, as both stopper and

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

, and his return to Betis would be even more unassuming as it consisted of one league match (18 minutes), with the team failing to return to the top division. In August 2010, aged 30, Nano signed for

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 6 September 1909, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025– ...

. First-choice during his first season, he scored in a 2–0 home win over Atlético Madrid on 4 December. Nano started in all the games for the

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 ...

side in the first half of 2011–12, as they spent the vast majority of that period in Champions League qualification positions. In very late January 2012, however, he was sold to

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

of 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 ...

. Nano announced his retirement in February 2014. On 6 July of the following year, he was appointed

Vicente Moreno Vicente Moreno Peris (born 26 October 1974) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder, and is currently the manager of La Liga club Osasuna. He spent most of his career with Xerez, appearing in 412 offici ...

's assistant manager at

Gimnàstic de Tarragona Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona, commonly known as Gimnàstic Tarragona or sometimes just Nàstic, is a Spanish sports club based in Tarragona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Its football team plays in . The club was founded in 1886 an ...

Coaching career

On 25 May 2016, Nano was named

Getafe CF B Getafe Club de Fútbol "B" is the reserve team of Getafe CF, club based in Getafe, Madrid metropolitan area, in the namesake community. Founded in 1983, it currently plays in holding home games at '' Ciudad Deportiva Getafe CF''. History Getafe ...

manager. He returned to Gimnàstic roughly one year later, being appointed at the main squad for the remainder of the season. Having managed to narrowly avoid relegation, Nano left ''Nàstic'' in June 2017. The following 29 January, however, he replaced the fired Rodri at the helm of the same club, but was himself dismissed on 13 May. Nano was hired by K.S.V. Roeselare of the

Belgian First Division B The Challenger Pro League, previously known as 1B Pro League is the second-highest division in the Football in Belgium, Belgian football Belgian football league system, league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was created by the ...

in November 2018, replacing his compatriot

Jordi Condom Jordi Condom Aulí (born 29 June 1969) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder, currently a manager. He spent most of his playing career at Palamós, including six seasons in the Segunda División, and started man ...

. Only two months later he left to assist

Quique Sánchez Flores Enrique "Quique" Sánchez Flores (; born 5 February 1965) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a right-back. He began his professional career with Valencia in 1984, going on to amass La Liga totals of 304 games and 16 g ...

Shanghai Shenhua F.C. Shanghai Shenhua Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Shenhua plays its home matches at the Shanghai Stadium, located within Xuhui District. The owner of Shanghai Shenhua i ...

and was replaced by a third Spaniard, his former Betis teammate Juanito. On 29 April 2024, after several years of inactivity, Nano was named manager of

Primera Federación The Primera Federación, officially the Primera Federación Versus e-Learning for sponsorship reasons (formerly known as Primera RFEF). is the third tier of the Spanish football league system beginning with the 2021–22 season. It is administe ...

side

San Fernando CD San Fernando Club Deportivo Isleño is a Spanish football team based in San Fernando, Cádiz, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 2009, it plays in , holding home matches at Estadio Bahía Sur, with a capacity of 8,000 seats. H ...

; he replaced the sacked

Alfredo Santaelena Alfredo Santaelena Aguado (born 13 October 1967), known simply as Alfredo as a player, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder, currently manager of Toledo. He amassed La Liga totals of 211 games and seven goals o ...

Career statistics

Managerial statistics

Honours

Guizhou Renhe *

Chinese FA Cup The Chinese FA Cup (, abbreviated as CFA Cup) is the national knockout cup competition in China organized by the Chinese Football Association. The current holders are Shanghai Port, having beaten Shandong Taishan in 2024 for their first title. H ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nano Rivas 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Ciudad Real 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Province of Ciudad Real Men's association football defenders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Atlético Madrid C players Atlético Madrid B players Getafe CF footballers Real Betis players Real Valladolid players Levante UD footballers Chinese Super League players Beijing Chengfeng F.C. players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in China Spanish expatriate sportspeople in China Spanish football managers Segunda División managers Tercera División managers Primera Federación managers Tercera Federación managers Getafe CF B managers Gimnàstic de Tarragona managers San Fernando CD managers Challenger Pro League managers K.S.V. Roeselare managers Spanish expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Belgium Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Shanghai Shenhua F.C. non-playing staff Getafe CF non-playing staff