Jesús Manuel 'Suso' Santana Abreu (born 2 March 1985) 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 ...

who played as a

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He started his professional career with

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the Archipelago, archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitant ...

, but was loaned several times to lower league teams until the end of his contract. In 2009, he moved to the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when t ...

with Hearts, where he remained three years. In 2012, Santana returned to Tenerife. Over nine seasons in Segunda División with the club, he amassed totals of 288 matches and 33 goals.

Club career

Tenerife

Born in

San Cristóbal de La Laguna San Cristóbal de La Laguna (commonly known as La Laguna, ) is a city and municipality in the northern part of the island of Tenerife in the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, on the Canary Islands, Spain. The city is the third-most populous ...

Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, also Province of Santa Cruz ( es, link=no, Provincia de Santa Cruz de Tenerife), is a province of Spain, consisting of the western part of the autonomous community of the Canary Islands. It consists of abou ...

, Santana began his professional career at local

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1912, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez L� ...

, signing in 2002 with its youth system. Early on, he was loaned to

Tercera División Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segunda División'', and the semi-professional ''Segunda Di ...

sides Atlético Arona CF and AD Laguna, in order to gain experience. Santana played one full season with Tenerife in Segunda División, but opportunities continued to be limited for him in the main squad and another two loan spells ensued, now with

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, 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 Fo ...

teams CD San Isidro and UD Fuerteventura. With the former, he finished as top scorer in the 2008–09 campaign with nine goals from the right side of midfield, although they would be relegated due to financial problems.

Hearts

Santana's performances caught the eye of Hearts manager Csaba László, who signed him on a free transfer from Tenerife on 30 June 2009. He got off to a good start at

Tynecastle Stadium Tynecastle Park is a football stadium in the Gorgie area of Edinburgh, which is the home ground of Scottish Professional Football League club Heart of Midlothian (Hearts). It has also hosted Scotland international matches, and been used as a ...

, playing in every pre-season game and particularly impressing in friendlies against

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pik ...

(where he set up the only goal) and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, putting in

player of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

performances. However, in the

, Santana's displays were somewhat erratic: during a 2–2 draw with

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an ol ...

, he was replaced after an alleged spitting incident. He improved from there onwards, again being named man of the match in the side's 1–0 win over Kilmarnock on 15 September 2009. He scored his first goal for the club five days later, opening a 2–1 defeat against Celtic at

Celtic Park Celtic Park is the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is al ...

with a long-range shot. Santana's second goal for Hearts came on 26 September 2009, the second in a 2–1 victory over

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championship, having been relegated from the 2020–21 Scottis ...

. He also netted against eventual champions Rangers in a 1–4 home loss, from a volley. Santana's second season in Scotland was hit by injuries, and he never really managed to get a consistent run together, also having to undergo knee surgery in late April 2011. After returning to full fitness, he began appearing as a substitute. On 18 March 2012 he scored his second goal of the campaign, netting in the 90th minute of a 2–0

derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gain ...

defeat of Hibernian. He also helped the team win the season's

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Mo ...

and Tenerife on 6 July 2012. He scored five goals in his first season in his second stint, helping the club return to the second tier after one year out. Santana featured regularly for ''Tete'' in the following campaigns while acting as

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

, only losing his first-choice status in 2019–20. On 8 June 2021, aged 36 and having made 337 competitive appearances, he retired from professional football.

Club statistics

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Santana, Suso 1985 births Living people People from San Cristóbal de La Laguna Sportspeople from the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife Spanish footballers Footballers from the Canary Islands Association football wingers Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players CD Tenerife players Scottish Premier League players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Scotland Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Scotland