Pablo Infante Muñoz (born 20 March 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

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. ...

. A late bloomer, he spent most of his professional career at Mirandés, appearing in nearly 350 competitive games and amassing

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 55 matches and 11 goals for the club (104/15 overall).

Club career

Early career

Born in

Burgos Burgos () is a city in Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populous municipality of the province of Burgos. Burgos is situated in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, on the confluence of th ...

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

, Infante played at youth level with local

Real Burgos CF Real Burgos Club de Fútbol was a Spanish football team based in Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded in 1983, it ceased to compete in 1996 and returned in 2011, holding home games at ''Complejo Deportivo San Amaro'' ...

, Vadillos CF and Racing Lermeño. His first six years as a senior were spent in amateur football.

Mirandés

Infante made his professional debut in the 2005–06 season, with

CD Mirandés Club Deportivo Mirandés is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Miranda de Ebro, Province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 3 May 1927, the club competes in the Segunda División ...

in the

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 ...

, which he helped to promote to

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 his

fourth year Fourth year, also known as S4, is the fourth year of schooling in Scottish, Venezuelan, Ecuadorian, Colombian, and other Latin American countries secondary schools, and is roughly equivalent to Year 11 in England and Wales and Year 12 (Sixth Fo ...

. In 2011–12, his name became known in Spain after the

club's performances in that campaign's

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 ...

, disposing of

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 ...

sides

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D., usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Villarreal, in the Province of Castellón, Castellón province of easte ...

and

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Spain, Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spani ...

, with the player scoring four of their six goals in those four matches, and eventually being crowned the competition's top scorer; in the domestic league, he netted 13 times in the

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

alone to help his team promote to

for the first time ever. On 28 June 2012, the 32-year-old Infante renewed his contract with Mirandés for one further season. He played his first game in the second tier on 17 August, starting in a 0–1 home loss against

SD Huesca Sociedad Deportiva Huesca, S.A.D., is a Spanish football club based in Huesca, in the autonomous community of Aragon. Founded in 1910, the club competes in the Segunda División, having played in the Spanish top division for the first time in th ...

. Infante scored his professional goals on 1 September 2012, netting a brace in a 4–0 away victory over

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 ...

Ponferradina

On 13 July 2014, after a nine-year spell at the Estadio Municipal de Anduva, Infante signed a one-year deal with fellow second-division

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 ...

. He scored four times from 32 appearances in his debut campaign, adding seven assists for the seventh-placed team.

Personal life

After numerous media interviews in Spain, it emerged that Infante spent years refusing offers from club in higher divisions due to his work as director of a bank branch, located 50 kilometers from Mirandés' facilities. He was a graduate in

Business Administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

from the

University of Burgos The University of Burgos (in Spanish: Universidad de Burgos and often abbreviated UBU) is a public university in the Spanish city of Burgos with about 10,000 students studying over 30 different undergraduate degrees, over 20 PhD Programmes, as wel ...

, and played the vast majority of his career in teams in the

Province of Burgos The province of Burgos is a Provinces of Spain, province of northern Spain, in the northeastern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Castile and León. It is bordered by the provinces of Palencia (p ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Infante, Pablo 1980 births Living people 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Burgos Men's association football wingers Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol players Racing Lermeño players Arandina CF players CD Mirandés footballers SD Ponferradina players