Ismael Urzaiz

Club career Real Madrid Born in Tudela, Navarre, Urzaiz began his professional career at Real Madrid's reserves, joining the youth system from local Tudelano in 1985 and making his debut in the Segunda División four years later. Despite being a successful youth international, he did not make any La Liga appearances for the first team (however, he did play one game against Danish club OB, in the 1990–91 European Cup).

Urzaiz spent the 1991–92 season on loan at Albacete, making his top-flight debut when he came on as a substitute in a 4–0 home win against Athletic Bilbao on 20 October 1991. In early 1993, he was loaned to Celta de Vigo in the same league.

Professional journeyman Urzaiz left Real Madrid permanently in 1993, and in the following three seasons he played for Rayo Vallecano, Salamanca and Espanyol, with a very modest scoring rate in the first two teams. He helped Salamanca to win promotion to the top tier in 1995, scoring twice as they beat Albacete 5–0 in the play-offs following a 2–0 home loss in the first leg.

The following campaign, Urzaiz joined Espanyol for 35 million pesetas including a hat-trick against his former club Rayo Vallecano for a 4–2 home victory on 14 April 1996.

Athletic Bilbao The form of a revived Urzaiz attracted interest, and in summer 1996 he joined Athletic Bilbao for a 500 million pesetas fee, but the emergence of youth graduate Fernando Llorente – even taller at – prompted his exit in July 2007; he still featured in 35 competitive games in his final year, coincidentally also his age by its end, but only completed the 90 minutes in six of them.

As well as being only the 14th player (at that point) to pass 400 appearances for Athletic, Urzaiz's total of 419 games set a club record for a player from Navarre which stood until 2020 when overtaken by Iker Muniain.

Ajax On 19 July 2007, Urzaiz signed a one-year contract with Ajax, joining fellow Spaniards Gabri and Albert Luque. He made his official debut on 15 August, in the Champions League qualifier against Slavia Prague (1–0 home loss, 18 minutes played).

Urzaiz was released by the Amsterdam club after just three Eredivisie appearances, announcing his retirement at nearly 37 shortly afterwards.

International career Urzaiz represented Spain at the 1988 UEFA European Under-16 Championship on home soil, helping his country to win the tournament. He also scored four goals for the under-20 team at the 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship, held in Portugal.

On 10 October 1996, Urzaiz made his debut for the senior side, a 0–0 away draw with the Czech Republic for the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. Over the next three years he made only three more appearances and failed to score, but emerged as the hero as Spain qualified for UEFA Euro 2000, netting six times in three games – this included two against Austria and a hat-trick against Cyprus. After a further two in a friendly with Poland, he was picked for the final stages in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The recipient of 25 caps with eight goals, Urzaiz made his last international appearance in a 3–0 friendly loss to England in Birmingham, in 2001. Between 1997 and 2005 he also played seven times for the Basque Country representative team, scoring twice in a 3–2 win over Morocco in 2000.

Career statistics Club

International Scores and results list Spain's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Urzaiz goal.

Honours Spain U16 UEFA European Under-16 Championship: 1988

Individual FIFA U-20 World Cup: Silver Shoe 1991