Eloy Olaya

Eloy José Olaya Prendes (born 10 July 1964), known simply as Eloy, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a forward.

Club career Eloy was born in Gijón, Asturias. During his career, he played for Sporting de Gijón (being part of a strong 80's team that achieved two fourth places in La Liga, in 1985 and 1987, with the player scoring 11 goals from 43 appearances in the latter season), Valencia CF (with roughly the same individual records, helping the Che to a runner-up spot in the 1989–90 campaign) and CD Badajoz (retiring after an unassuming Segunda División spell). On 28 November 1979, aged only 15, he made his professional debut, appearing for the side in a Copa del Rey match against CD Turón as the Royal Spanish Football Federation did not allow clubs to field players from the reserves, which were able to also compete in the tournament in that period.

After retiring in 1998 at the age of 34, with top-tier totals of 430 games and 77 goals, Eloy served as director of football for his main club Sporting, from 2001 to 2006.

International career Eloy earned 15 caps and scored four goals for the Spain national team in five years. where he netted against Algeria in a 3–0 win, also missing in a penalty shootout quarter-final loss to Belgium, and UEFA Euro 1988 (no appearances).

International goals + # Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition 1. 22 January 1986 Insular, Las Palmas, Spain 2–0 2–0 Friendly 2. 12 June 1986 Tecnológico, Monterrey, Mexico 0–3 0–3 1986 FIFA World Cup 3. 1 April 1987 Prater, Vienna, Austria 0–1 2–3 Euro 1988 qualifying 4. 1 April 1987 Prater, Vienna, Austria 1–2 2–3 Euro 1988 qualifying

Honours Valencia Copa del Rey runner-up: 1994–95

Spain U21 UEFA European Under-21 Championship: 1986