Toni Madrigal

Antonio Jesús Madrigal Vílchez (born 19 December 1976) is a Spanish former footballer who played as a forward, and the current assistant manager of Leganés.

He played no higher than the Segunda División B, where he totalled 277 games and 68 goals for seven clubs. In the 2002–03 season, he scored a hat-trick in a 3–2 Copa del Rey win for Novelda over Barcelona.

From 2015, Madrigal worked as an assistant manager to Rubén Albés.

Playing career Madrigal was born in Alicante, and raised in Alfafar near Valencia while his father worked at Ford Valencia Body and Assembly in Almussafes. His father put him on the factory's football team, and the boy signed for Valencia CF's academy when he was 11.

Aged 16 and seeing no progress at Valencia, Madrigal left for Gimnástico before beginning his senior career with Alzira in the Segunda División B in 1999–2000. The following year, he played for Terrassa, before managing to release himself of his contract and move to Novelda in 2001. His performances in his first season at the club earned him a two-year contract extension, albeit with no bonuses for goals. The players had made deals at half time to swap shirts with their opponents, with Madrigal having Riquelme's, but Barcelona refused to do so at the end of the game and Madrigal went into their changing room to request a shirt, having Mendieta's randomly thrown at him by Gerard López. Madrigal said that he received media attention from as far as Argentina for his feat, but the limited reach of the internet and his lack of an agent meant that he was not transferred to a bigger team; the official physical photographs of the game were obtained by fans before they could be given to the players. In 2011, while playing for Catarroja in the Tercera División, he was chosen for the Valencian Community side in the UEFA Regions' Cup.

Coaching career After retiring in 2012, Madrigal became a fitness coach and assistant manager under former Catarroja manager Rubén Albés. Celta Vigo B, UCAM Murcia, Hermannstadt in Romania, Lugo, Albacete, Sporting Gijón, Umm Salal in Qatar, and Leganés.