Jon Irazustabarrena Lizarralde (born 30 April 1986), known as Txusta, is a Spanish

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 plays for

Real Unión Real Unión Club, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Irun, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa, near the border with France. Founded on 15 May 1915 it currently plays in Primera División RF ...

as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

Club career

Born in

Usurbil Usurbil () is a town and region located in the province of Gipuzkoa in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, in the North of Spain. It lies in an area well known for its sagardotegiak (cider houses) and the area adjacent to the river ...

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

, Txusta graduated from

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

's youth system, and made his debut with the reserves in the 2003–04 season, in 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 ...

. In 2005, he signed for neighbouring

SD Beasain Sociedad Deportiva Beasain (''Beasain Kirol Elkartea'' in Basque) is a Spanish football team based in Beasain, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1905 it plays in , holding home games at '' Estadio Loinaz'', with a capaci ...

from

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 ...

. Txusta was recalled by ''Sanse'' in summer 2007, but after being sparingly used he returned to Beasain in July 2008. In August 2009 he joined another

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

, SD Eibar B also in the fourth division; he remained in that tier the following three years, representing

CD Lagun Onak Club Deportivo Lagun Onak is a Spanish football team based in Azpeitia, in the autonomous community of Basque Country. Founded in 1944 it plays in , holding home games at '' Estadio Garmendipe'', which has a capacity of 1,500 spectators. The tea ...

and Beasain. On 29 January 2013, Txusta signed with division three club

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in ) is a Spanish football league teams, Spanish professional football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the men’s te ...

. He made four appearances during the campaign, as they returned 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 ...

after a four-year absence. On 31 May 2014, as the

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

side were already promoted to

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 ...

, the 28-year-old Txusta played his first match as a professional, starting in a 1–0 home win against

CD Lugo Club Deportivo Lugo is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Lugo, in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. Founded on 8 July 1953, it plays in Primera Federación, holding home games at ''Estadio Anxo ...

. Roughly a month later, he renewed his contract for a further year. Txusta signed for third-tier

in July 2015, after being released by Eibar. On 6 July 2016, he joined

Barakaldo CF Barakaldo Club de Fútbol is a Basque football team based in Barakaldo, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Founded in 1917 it plays in , holding home stadium is '' Lasesarre'', with a 7,960 Seat Capacity. History Barakaldo pla ...

in the same league. On 29 May 2018, Txusta returned to Unión, agreeing to a two-year deal.‘Txusta’ vuelve al Real Unión ('Txusta' returns to Real Unión)

Mundo Deportivo ''Mundo Deportivo'' (; ) is a Spanish nationwide daily sports newspaper published in Barcelona. History and profile ''Mundo Deportivo'' was first published on 1 February 1906, as a weekly newspaper, and since 1929 daily. It is the oldest sports ...

, 29 May 2018

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Txusta 1986 births Living people People from Usurbil Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Gipuzkoa Men's association football goalkeepers Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Primera Federación players Real Sociedad B footballers SD Beasain footballers SD Eibar B footballers SD Eibar footballers Real Unión footballers Barakaldo CF footballers 21st-century Spanish sportsmen