José Catalá

José Manuel Catalá Mazuecos (born 1 January 1985) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a central defender or a left-back.

Club career Born in Villajoyosa, Province of Alicante, Valencian Community, Catalá emerged through local club Valencia CF's youth ranks, making his senior debut in the Segunda División B where he successively represented Villajoyosa CF, Valencia CF Mestalla and Alicante CF. In the 2007–08 season, he helped the latter to promote to Segunda División.

After suffering immediate relegation with Alicante, Catalá continued in that level with Villarreal CF's reserves. He was instrumental as they avoided relegation in their first-ever year in the competition, totalling 2,444 minutes and scoring once.

Catalá was promoted to the first team for the 2010–11 campaign, aged already 25. He managed to provide stiff competition to veteran Joan Capdevila, inclusively relegating the European and World Champion to the bench in some games. He finished his first year in La Liga with 30 competitive matches to his credit – 16 in the league, five in the Copa del Rey and nine in a semi-final run in the UEFA Europa League – opening the 2–0 home win against UD Almería on 3 January 2011 as the side eventually finished fourth and qualified for the UEFA Champions League.

After leaving the Yellow Submarine, Catalá totalled just 27 appearances in two seasons for Real Murcia CF

Catalá made his debut for his new team on 24 August 2014, coming on as a late substitute in a 3–2 home victory over Skoda Xanthi FC. His first start occurred against Ergotelis FC, his two mistakes resulting in both of the opposition's goals in an eventual 2–2 away draw. After failing to perform overall, player and club agreed to mutually terminate the contract on 26 May 2015.

In the following years, Catalá played in the Spanish third division.

Career statistics