David Villabona

David Villabona Echalecu (born 5 December 1969) is a Spanish retired footballer who played mostly as a central midfielder.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Villabona and the second or maternal family name is Echalecu.
David Villabona
Personal information
Full name David Villabona Echalecu
Date of birth (1969-12-05) 5 December 1969
Place of birth Irun, Spain
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
Real Sociedad
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1986–1989 Real Sociedad B 30 (3)
1987–1990 Real Sociedad 42 (1)
1990–1993 Athletic Bilbao 59 (1)
1993–2001 Racing Santander 120 (11)
Total 251 (16)
National team
1987 Spain U17 1 (0)
1986–1988 Spain U18 10 (1)
1988–1989 Spain U19 3 (0)
1989–1990 Spain U20 5 (1)
1990–1991 Spain U21 5 (0)
1991–1992 Spain U23 5 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only
Olympic medal record
Representing  Spain
Men's Football
1992 BarcelonaTeam Competition

During his professional career he played for both Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao, amassing La Liga totals of 221 matches and 13 goals over 15 seasons.

Villabona was a member of the Spanish side that won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.[1]

Club career

Villabona was born in Irun, Gipuzkoa. In a career blighted by injuries, he started playing professionally with Real Sociedad, but only amassed seven La Liga appearances in his first three seasons, being an undisputed starter however in 1989–90 as he helped the Basques to a final fifth place.

Subsequently, Villabona joined neighbours Athletic Bilbao,[2] being regularly used at the beginning but very little in his final campaign, facing stiff competition from Josu Urrutia and youngster Julen Guerrero. His most steady period was lived at Racing de Santander, being a very important midfield element for the Cantabrians; due to recurrent injuries, however, he only appeared 12 times from 1997 to 2001 combined (none in the latter season as they finished second from the bottom), and retired at the age of 31.

Honours

Spain U23

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References
  1. "La Roja de 1992, nuestra medalla de oro Olímpica" [1992's La Roja, our Olympic gold medal] (in Spanish). Antena 3. 3 July 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  2. "Athletic Club-Real Sociedad: jugadores en los dos bandos" [Athletic Club-Real Sociedad: players on both sides]. Diario AS (in Spanish). 9 May 2014. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  3. "Supervivientes de oro" [Golden survivors]. El País (in Spanish). 25 February 2007. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
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