Aitor Larrazábal

Aitor Larrazábal
Personal information
Full name Aitor Larrazábal Bilbao
Date of birth (1971-06-21) 21 June 1971
Place of birth Bilbao, Spain
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Playing position Left back
Club information
Current team
 Amorebieta (coach)
Youth career
1982–1989 Athletic Bilbao
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1989–1991 Bilbao Athletic 43 (2)
1990–2004 Athletic Bilbao 390 (39)
Total 433 (41)
National team
1990 Spain U20 1 (0)
1990–1991 Spain U21 4 (0)
1991 Spain U23 3 (0)
Teams managed
2008–2009 Gatika
2009–2011 Lemona
2011–2015 Athletic Bilbao (youth)
2015–2016 Marbella
2016– Amorebieta

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Larrazábal and the second or maternal family name is Bilbao.

Aitor Larrazábal Bilbao (born 21 June 1971) is a Spanish retired footballer who played solely for Athletic Bilbao, and the current manager of SD Amorebieta.

A left back of offensive penchant he appeared in 445 official games for his only club, and was also a penalty kick specialist, scoring at least one La Liga goal in 13 of his 14 professional seasons.[1]

Club career

Larrazábal was born in Bilbao, Biscay. Having joined Athletic Bilbao's youth ranks at 11, he started playing professionally with its reserves in Segunda División, and made his first-team debut on 2 September 1990 in a 0–1 away loss against CD Tenerife,[2] finishing his first year in La Liga with 18 games.

From then onwards, Larrazábal was an undisputed starter for the Basques, scoring and assisting alike. In the 1997–98 season, as Bilbao finished runner-up, he scored a career-best seven league goals, being instrumental as his team qualified for the subsequent edition of the UEFA Champions League, where he featured, for instance, in both group stage draws against Juventus FC, although the club eventually ranked last.

After Asier del Horno (another Lezama youth graduate)'s emergence in the 2002–03 campaign, Larrazábal still featured prominently in his last two seasons combined – 36 matches, three goals – but eventually retired from the game in May 2004 at the age of 33, after a two-decade link with a sole club.[3]

Larrazábal subsequently became a coach: after starting in amateur football, he joined lowly SD Lemona (Basque Country) from Segunda División B in 2009, leading the club to the sixth position in his first year and narrowly missing out on playoff qualification.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Iraola es el defensa más goleador de toda la Liga" [Iraola is the defender with the most goals in the entire League] (in Spanish). El Desmarque. 22 November 2011. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  2. ↑ "El Tenerife "rugió" primero" [Tenerife "roared" first] (in Spanish). Mundo Deportivo. 3 September 1990. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  3. ↑ Andresen prolongs Stabæk stay; UEFA.com 21 May 2004

External links

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