Julen Guerrero

Julen Guerrero López [' ʝulen ge'reɾo ' lopeθ ] ( born January 7, 1974 in Portugalete, Vizcaya, Spain ) is a former Spanish professional footballer who was active for Athletic Bilbao, Spain and the Basque football team.

Club career

Guerrero played since he was eight years old, for Athletic Bilbao and ran through all the youth teams of the club. His breakthrough began in the 1991/92 season when he División for the second team in the Segunda could achieve six goals in twelve games.

On September 6, 1992, he made ​​his professional debut under coach Jupp Heynckes in the First team in Bilbao. Guerrero here quickly became the central figure of the team, scoring as a midfielder in his first two years, 28 goals in 73 games. His services were rewarded with the choice of the best young players in the Primera División in 1993 and a year later as the best player of the season 1994. During this season, he had scored a hat-trick against Albacete Balompié and scored four goals in the match against Sporting de Gijón. Thus he became the new captain and star of the team from the Basque Country.

Guerrero was interesting because of his achievements now for other clubs such as Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, ​​Lazio, Juventus and Manchester United. He remained true to his home club, however, refused all offers and signed in 1995 a ten- year contract with Bilbao. This is the longest contract the club history and he made Guerrero for top earners. 2002 Guerrero lost his place under new coach Luis Fernandez, he remained in spite of its weaker performance crowd favorite and a symbolic figure of the association.

Overall, Guerrero played 14 seasons in the First team of Athletic Bilbao and came up with 372 league games and 101 goals. In the European Cup he was 15 times active, scoring five goals. On 11 July 2006 he declared in a press conference his retirement and has since been working in the youth field in Bilbao.

International career

At the age of only 19 Guerrero announced on 27 January 1993 against Mexico, his international debut for Spain. Overall, he came up with 41 games ( 13 goals) for his country and took part in the World Championships in 1994 and 1998 and at the Euro 1996.

Among his personal highlights include his hat-trick against Malta and Cyprus.

• Man
• Born in 1974
• National football team (Spain )
• Person ( Basque Country )
• Person (Bilbao)
• Spaniard