Iván de la Peña

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Iván de la Peña
DelaPeña1.JPG
De la Peña playing for Espanyol in 2009
Personal information
Full name Iván de la Peña López
Date of birth (1976-05-06) 6 May 1976 (age 47)
Place of birth Santander, Spain
Height Script error: No such module "person height".
Position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
Racing Santander
1991–1993 Barcelona
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1993–1995 Barcelona B 37 (5)
1995–1998 Barcelona 81 (11)
1998–2002 Lazio 15 (0)
1999–2000 → Marseille (loan) 12 (1)
2000–2001 → Barcelona (loan) 9 (0)
2002–2011 Espanyol 179 (8)
Total 331 (25)
International career
1991–1992 Spain U16 17 (2)
1992 Spain U17 4 (1)
1994 Spain U18 7 (3)
1995 Spain U20 5 (2)
1995–1996 Spain U21 10 (1)
1996 Spain U23 4 (0)
2005 Spain 5 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

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This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is De la Peña and the second or maternal family name is López.

Iván de la Peña López (Spanish pronunciation: [iˈβan delaˈpeɲa]; born 6 May 1976) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a central midfielder. During his career, de la Peña earned the nicknames Pequeño Buddha (Little Buddha[1]) and Lo Pelat (The Shaven One) due to his shaven head and slight frame.

Having started as a youth prodigy at Barcelona, he incidentally closed out his extensive career at neighbouring Espanyol, amassing La Liga totals of 269 games and 19 goals over the course of 12 seasons.

De la Peña was known for his technical skills and accurate passing ability, although his career was affected by several injuries.[2]

Playing career

Club

Born in Santander, Cantabria, de la Peña was recruited by FC Barcelona as a youth player in 1991 and made his debut for the B-team two years later. He went on to play 37 games for them, and first-team manager Johan Cruyff gave him his official main squad debut on 3 September 1995 as he came on as a substitute – and scored – in a 2–0 away win against Real Valladolid; at 19 he was initially regarded as the natural successor to Pep Guardiola. However, he gradually fell out of favour with Cruyff and found himself dropped, although he achieved a career-best seven league goals in that rookie season.

With the arrival of Bobby Robson in 1996, de la Peña was given a second chance to establish himself in the team. He subsequently developed a partnership with Ronaldo and was a prominent member of the team that won the Copa del Rey/UEFA Cup Winners' Cup/UEFA Supercup treble in 1997. He was also voted the best young player by El País in both 1996 and 1997.[3]

De la Peña fell out of favour at Barça once again after the arrival of another Dutch coach, Louis van Gaal,[4] and he was consequently transferred to S.S. Lazio, along with Fernando Couto.[5] However, he failed to establish himself in Serie A and was loaned to Olympique de Marseille during the 1999–00 season. This move was not successful either and he returned to Barcelona, on loan, for 2000–01; after only appearing nine times (one start, against Racing de Santander) throughout the season, under Lorenzo Serra Ferrer, he returned to Italy, being released in the following summer.

In 2002, de la Peña moved to Barcelona neighbours RCD Espanyol,[6] where he gained the continuity and stability to produce some of the best football in his career. In 2004–05 he helped the Catalans finish fifth in La Liga, enabling them to qualify for the UEFA Cup. In the 2006 domestic cup final, de la Peña masterminded a 4–1 victory against Real Zaragoza, setting up two goals: Raúl Tamudo scored after two minutes when he headed in a rebound following a de la Peña free-kick. The pair combined again to carve open the Zaragoza defence to lay on a goal for Luis García;[7] as a result, Espanyol again for the qualified for the UEFA Cup and eventually reached the competition final, losing to Sevilla FC on penalties.

From 2007 to 2009, after extending his contract,[8] de la Peña was severely hindered with injury problems. However, on 21 February 2009, he managed to net twice in a 2–1 derby win at Barça, with one side ranking first in the league and the other last;[9] Espanyol eventually finished in 10th position.

After the shocking death of new team captain Daniel Jarque, in August 2009, de la Peña was named as his replacement. His physical problems continued to bother him tremendously, to a point which he said that if this became a major issue he would retire, which happened on 22 May 2011 at the age of 35, immediately after a home match against Sevilla.[10]

International

De la Peña, alongside the likes of Gaizka Mendieta, Fernando Morientes and Raúl, played for the Spanish under-21s at both the 1996 UEFA European Championship[11] and the 1996 Summer Olympics, helping the nation reach the quarterfinals in the latter.

Despite this, he did not make his debut for the senior Spain team until 9 February 2005, at the age of 28 years and 9 months in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier against San Marino (Almería, 5–0).[12][13] He subsequently played for Spain on five occasions during the year, with his last coming against the same opponent.

Post-retirement

On 8 June 2011, de la Peña was announced as part of the new coaching staff that would work alongside new manager Luis Enrique – a former teammate at Barcelona – at Serie A club A.S. Roma.[14] It was announced in August that he would be taking a leave of absence for family reasons.[15]

Statistics

Club

[16]

Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Spain League Copa del Rey Supercopa de España Europe Total
1995–96 Barcelona La Liga 31 7 4 0 0 0 7 2 42 9
1996–97 33 2 2 0 1 1 6 0 41 3
1997–98 17 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 21 2
Italy League Coppa Italia League Cup Europe Total
1998–99 Lazio Serie A 14 0 1 0 0 0 4 1 19 1
France League Coupe de France Coupe de la Ligue Europe Total
1999–2000 Marseille Ligue 1 12 1 0 0 0 0 7 0 19 1
Spain League Copa del Rey Supercopa de España Europe Total
2000–01 Barcelona La Liga 9 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 12 0
Italy League Coppa Italia League Cup Europe Total
2001–02 Lazio Serie A 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
Spain League Copa del Rey Supercopa de España Europe Total
2002–03 Espanyol La Liga 29 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 29 0
2003–04 25 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 25 1
2004–05 29 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 30 3
2005–06 30 0 6 0 0 0 8 0 44 0
2006–07 26 0 1 0 1 0 10 1 38 1
2007–08 12 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 15 0
2008–09 22 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 22 4
2009–10 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 5 0
2010–11 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
Total Spain 269 19 21 0 2 1 35 3 327 24
Italy 15 0 2 0 4 1 21 1
France 12 1 7 0 19 1
Career total 296 20 23 0 2 1 46 4 367 26

International

Spain
Year Apps Goals
2005 5 0
Total 5 0

Honours

Club

Barcelona
Lazio
Espanyol

Country

Spain U-21

Individual

References

  1. ↑ Espanyol bank on 'Little Buddha'; UEFA.com, 16 May 2007
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Spain – Footballer of the Year; at RSSF
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ De la Peña seals Spanish return; UEFA.com, 29 August 2002
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Espanyol confirm De la Peña deal; UEFA.com, 19 June 2007
  9. ↑ Barcelona humbled while Madrid strike six; UEFA.com, 21 February 2009
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Italia ya ganó un Europeo a España en el 1996 (Italy has already won European Championships against Spain in 1996); Orgullo Bianconero, 18 June 2013 (Spanish)
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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