Pablo Pinillos Caro (born 9 July 1974) 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

right-back 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 ...

. In a 15-year professional career, he appeared in 213

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 ...

games over the course of eight seasons (three goals), mainly representing

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 ...

Club career

Early years

Born in

Murillo de Río Leza Murillo de Río Leza is a village in the province and autonomous community of La Rioja, Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Pun ...

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community and provinces of Spain, province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other List of municipalities in La Rioja, cities and towns in the ...

, Pinillos played professionally for modest clubs in his early years, working as a

bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsperson and tradesperson who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of maso ...

before arriving at

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 ...

team

Pontevedra CF Pontevedra Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team in Pontevedra, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Founded on 16 October 1941 it currently plays in , holding home matches at '' Estadio Municipal de Pasarón'', with a capacity o ...

in 1996, eight hours a day. After an uneventful two-year stint with

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 ...

, he moved to

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 ...

sides

CD Toledo Club Deportivo Toledo, S.A.D. is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Toledo, Spain, Toledo, in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. Founded in 1928 it plays in , holding home games at ''Estadio Salto del Cab ...

SD Compostela Sociedade Deportiva Compostela is a Spanish football team based in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia. They play home matches at San Lázaro, and compete in . History A team called Compostela Foot-ball Club was founded in 1928, ceasing to exist ...

and

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– ...

, achieving

promotion at the end of the 2003–04 season with the latter.

Racing Santander

Upon Levante's 2005 relegation, Pinillos joined

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

, where he coincided with former Levante coach Manuel Preciado. There, he was an undisputed defensive starter and one of the team's

captains Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

, being instrumental in their 2007–08 historic

qualification Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

to 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 ...

– 32 matches, 2,716 minutes. In the following campaign, the 34-year-old Pinillos played 29 league games plus three in the continental competition, as Racing finished in 12th position. He scored his first goal in the top flight on 26 April 2009, but in a 2–1 away loss against

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 ...

. In early July 2011, after 191 official appearances with Racing (and 20 during the season as they again retained their division status), Pinillos retired from football at the age of 37, having taken part in 354 matches both major levels of Spanish football combined. He immediately joined the club's coaching staff. After the dismissal of manager

Juanjo González Juan José González Argüelles (born 9 October 1973), known as Juanjo, is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and manager. Career Born in Gijón, Asturias, Juanjo spent most of his playing career with hometown club Sporti ...

on 7 March 2012, Pinillos was promoted to

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caret ...

alongside

Fede Castaños Federico 'Fede' Castaños Martínez (born 12 January 1959) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a defender, and a current manager. Club career Born in Bilbao, Biscay, Basque Country, Castaños graduated from Burgos CF's youth setup, ...

until the end of the campaign. Shortly after, however,

Álvaro Cervera Álvaro Cervera Díaz (born 20 September 1965) is a Spanish football coach and former player who is the manager of CD Tenerife. A winger, he played 261 matches in La Liga over 12 seasons for Racing de Santander (in two spells), Mallorca and V ...

was appointed as the new coach.

Honours

Calahorra *

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 ...

: 1995–96 Levante *

: 2003–04

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinillos, Pablo 1974 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Footballers from La Rioja (Spain) Men's association football fullbacks La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players CD Calahorra players Pontevedra CF footballers Deportivo Fabril players Deportivo de La Coruña players CD Toledo players SD Compostela footballers Levante UD footballers Racing de Santander players