Antonio "Toni" Lechuga Mateos (born 15 February 1988) is a Spanish 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 le ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring 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 intercepting o ...

for Real Jaén.

Club career

Born in Jerez de la Frontera,

Province of Cádiz Cádiz is a Provinces of Spain, province of southern Spain, in the southwestern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is the southernmost part of mainland Spain, as well as the southernmost part of conti ...

, Toni started his career with hometown's Xerez CD, playing several seasons with the reserves, the first being 2006–07 in the

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 ...

. In late 2008 he was called up to train with the first team, but again only appeared officially for the B side. Toni served as third-choice – backing up Renan and

Chema Chema is a common nickname for the Spanish given name José María (an alternative to the short form ''José Mari''), and less commonly for ''José Manuel'' (or ''Josema''). People The name Chema may refer to: * Chema (footballer born 1976), ...

in the 2009–10 campaign and playing understudy to Chema and Francisco Lledó in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

– in the following years. On 6 April 2011 he renewed his contract with the

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

ns, extending his link to the club until 2014. On 20 May 2012, Toni made his debut as a professional, appearing in a 3–2

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

home win against Deportivo de La Coruña. He was promoted to backup the next season, starting the first seven matches as it ended in relegation. Toni spent the 2013–14 campaign in the Cypriot First Division with Doxa Katokopias FC. He returned to his country subsequently, seeing out his career in the lower leagues and amateur football.Toni Lechuga, nuevo portero para el Real Jaén (Toni Lechuga, new goalkeeper for Real Jaén)
El Deporte de Jaén, 18 November 2021 (in Spanish)

Club statistics

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lechuga, Toni 1988 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Jerez de la Frontera Association football goalkeepers Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Tercera Federación players Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol players Xerez CD B players Xerez CD footballers CD Guadalajara (Spain) footballers Burgos CF footballers Arcos CF players CD Paracuellos Antamira players Internacional de Madrid players Real Jaén footballers Cypriot First Division players Doxa Katokopias FC players Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus