The soccer player Gaizka Mendieta was born in Bilbao, in the Basque Country, on March 27, 1974. His demarcation was that of attacking midfielder.
Mendieta began his sports career at the Tonin Sports Club in Castellón, where he trained as a player and was gradually followed by teams from the province.
The Castellón Sports Club made an offer to the player in 1991 to hire him, which Gaizka accepted.
In the Franco-black club, the forward stood out even more, being observed by many clubs in Spain, including Valencia CF, who signed him in 1992.
His qualities were also observed by the coaches of the Spanish team at the time, calling him to wear the red shirt, which he wore 40 times.
The contract offered by the “ché” club to the player was for 9 years, during which Gaizka began to be a benchmark in the lead of said team, and which he became “lethal” together with the player Claudio “louse” López.
Mendieta was already observed by the most important clubs around the world, and, in 1999, Valencia CF began to receive offers, rejecting many of them, including one from Real Madrid CF.
In 2001, the Italian club SS Lazio signed Mendieta for 48 million euros, thus becoming the most expensive Spanish signing in history.
Playing in the “Scudetto”, Mendieta was not very successful, as he suffered too many tickets and did not play many games, so the following year he accepted the offer made by FC Barcelona in the 2002/03 campaign, but on loan. , so in the middle of the season he would return to the Italian club.
In 2003, Middlesbrough FC made an offer to Mendieta to play in the Premier League, where he spent 5 seasons, retiring in 2008, at the age of 34, after having played more than 460 games in the first European competitions. .
Mendieta has in his record a large number of trophies and distinctions, including 1 runner-up in the European Under-21 Nations Cup, 1 King’s Cup, 1 Spanish Super Cup, 1 English League Cup (FA), 1 Cup Intertoto, 2 UEFA Champions League runners-up, 6 Orange Trophies, 1 City of Palma Trophy, 2 Villa de Benidorm Trophies, 2 Valencia City Trophies, 1 San Mamés 80th Anniversary Trophy, 1 Joan Gamper Trophy, 1 Mérida City Trophy , 1 Ciutat de Barcelona Trophy, 1 Fuji Cup Trophy, 2 Generalitat Cup Trophies and 1 Ceramic Trophy. As individual distinctions, the player has won 2 trophies for Best Midfielder in the Champions Legue.