Albert Riera
Riera in the jersey of Gala ( 2013)
Albert Riera Ortega ( born April 15, 1982 in Manacor ) is a Spanish football player.
Association
Riera, who plays left-sided midfielder, began his career with his hometown club RCD Mallorca, from whose youth he came from. After three years and a grand finale ( winning the Copa del Rey 2003), he moved abroad. He spent the next two years as a regular in the French Ligue 1 in the ambitious team of Girondins Bordeaux. He wanted to return to Spain, but from Bordeaux it was not until the second attempt the jump back to the Primera División. After a weak first round he was loaned in 2006 in the English Premier League to Manchester City. On his debut city rival and nemesis Manchester United was defeated. At the end of the season, the "Citizens" but decided to fulfill an obligation.
Contrary to all expectations, Riera continued during the 2006/07 season by at Espanyol and was a regular player. In the final defeat in the UEFA Cup against FC Sevilla succeeded even a hit in the regular season.
On 1 September 2008, before the transfer window closed, Riera signed a four - year contract with the English Premier League club Liverpool. The transfer fee is at £ 8 million, approximately € 9.8 million, estimated.
On September 13, in the home game against Manchester United Riera made his debut for Liverpool. Three days later, at Olympique Marseille, he first played in the UEFA Champions League. After the 2008/09 season with a reach of second place in the Premier League with relative success for Riera was, he was thrown back in the 2009/10 season by several injuries over again. After he publicly criticized Rafael Benitez, change there have been rumors in the media quite often.
In July 2010, the midfielder signed a fixed-term four-year contract with Greek first division club Olympiacos Piraeus. In the season 2010/11 he won with Olympiakos Piraeus for the first time in his career a championship.
On September 3, 2011 Riera moved to Turkey for Galatasaray. Galatasaray paid for the Spaniards a transfer fee of 3 million Euros. Here he remained in the first season of expectations and was therefore criticized by the Turkish press. After the summer of 2012 was his departure almost as safe, he remained in the coming season in the team squad. In his second season at Galatasaray Riera was established by the head coach Fatih Terim left-back after the defender Hakan Balta actual links had been canceled due to an injury and its replacement Çağlar Birinci the anticipated performance is not provided. In this new position Riera convinced consistently and established itself well to regular players. With the season 2013/14 the number of foreigners in the Turkish Süper Lig was severely restricted. This rule change hardly Riera in the league a few uses and played more in the Champions League or in the Turkish Cup. After Galatasaray had worsened in the winter transfer window 2013/14 according to the wishes of the new head coach Roberto Mancini with Alex Telles and Izet Hajrović, two in the squad contained foreign players had to be delivered. Thus Riera's contract was terminated on 29 January 2014 by mutual agreement. During his time at Galatasaray Riera was twice champion of Turkish, Turkish Supercup winner and a time quarter-finalist of the Champions League.
On March 24, 2014, he announced to play from the summer of 2014 for the Italian first division side Udinese Calcio.
National
Of course, the Spanish coach Luis Aragonés Riera's not lost on performance improvement, so that he now has three games for the " Selección " disputed. In the away game in Denmark he even managed a Weitschusstor a 3-1 success. His team-mate Raúl Tamudo hit in the same game as well. At the European Football Championship 2008, however, he was not allowed to participate.
Achievements
- Copa del Rey: 2003
- Greek champions: 2011
- Turkish champion: 2012, 2013
- Turkish Super Cup Winner: 2012, 2013