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Rubén Baraja

Baraja as manager of Elche in 2016
Personal information
Full name	Rubén Baraja Vegas
Date of birth	(1975-07-11) 11 July 1975 (age 42)
Place of birth	Valladolid, Spain
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current team	Sporting Gijón (coach)
Youth career
	Valladolid
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1993–1995	Valladolid B	46	(11)
1993–1996	Valladolid	41	(2)
1996–1999	Atlético Madrid B	79	(20)
1999–2000	Atlético Madrid	34	(4)
2000–2010	Valencia	262	(41)
Total		462	(78)
National team
1993	Spain U18	3	(1)
2000–2005	Spain	43	(7)
Teams managed
2011	Atlético Madrid (assistant)
2013–2015	Valencia (youth)
2013	Valencia B (interim)
2015–2016	Elche
2016–2017	Rayo Vallecano
2017–	Sporting Gijón
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Rubén Baraja Vegas (born 11 July 1975) is a Spanish retired footballer, and is the current manager of Sporting de Gijón.

A complete central midfielder with good tackling, technique, and offensive qualities, together with accurate passing and goalscoring ability,^[1][2] he played mostly for Valencia during a 17-year professional career, being an essential figure in five of the club's major titles, which included two La Liga championships.^[3]

Baraja was also a consistent part of the Spain national team for five years, appearing in one World Cup and one European Championship and winning nearly 50 caps.

Playing career

Club

Born in Valladolid, Castile and León, Baraja started his career at local Real Valladolid before moving to Atlético Madrid, where he would spend two-and-a-half seasons with the B-side, first appearing with the main squad on 7 February 1999 by playing the second half of a 1–2 defeat at UD Salamanca.^[4] In the 1998–99 campaign, with the B's in the second division, he scored a career-best 11 goals.

When Atlético was relegated at the end of 1999–2000, Baraja left the club in a 2,000 million pesetas transfer to that year's UEFA Champions League finalists Valencia CF,^[5] who were looking to strengthen their central midfield following the sale of first-team players Gerard and Javier Farinós. In his first season he was a key element in the Che's Champions League campaign, as they were beaten in the final for the second year running, this time losing in a penalty shootout to FC Bayern Munich, with the player scoring on his attempt.^[6]

The 2001–02 season would see Baraja's first trophy win, where his goals late in the campaign helped Valencia to their first La Liga title in 31 years – he finished as team top scorer in the league, netting seven in only seventeen league games. 2003–04 was another big year, winning both the domestic championship (with eight league goals from him) as well as the UEFA Cup, beating Olympique de Marseille 2–0 in the final.^[7]

In 2006–07, Baraja only appeared in 14 league contests as Valencia finished fourth, and continued to be constantly bothered by physical problems in the following years. After two respectable seasons, often partnering longtime central midfield partner David Albelda, he was again greatly troubled with physical problems in the 2009–10 season, appearing in only 18 matches (two complete); on 16 May 2010 he closed his chapter at the Mestalla Stadium after one full decade, receiving homages before and after the 1–0 home win against CD Tenerife and being replaced to a standing ovation in the 89th minute.^[8] The 35-year-old announced his retirement shortly after, having appeared in 338 first division games over the course of 15 seasons and scored 47 goals.

International

Baraja made his debut for Spain on 7 October 2000, in the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification 2–0 win over Israel.^[9] Consequently, he was picked for the final stages, where the team reached the quarter-finals before being sent out by co-hosts South Korea on penalties, though the player, as the year before with Valencia, once again scored on his attempt; he scored from a header during regulation time, but saw his goal disallowed for alleged shirt pulling and pushing in the Korean penalty area.^[10][11][12]

Baraja also took part in the disappointing UEFA Euro 2004 tournament,^[13] where Spain was eliminated in the group stage by eventual finalists Portugal and Greece.^[14][15] He was left out of the 2006 World Cup squad,^[16] as his club presence was also diminished due to recurrent injuries.^[17][18][19]

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	11 October 2000	Ernst Happel, Vienna, Austria	Austria	1–1	1–1	2002 World Cup qualification
2.	25 April 2001	Nuevo Arcángel, Córdoba, Spain	Japan	1–0	1–0	Friendly
3.	17 April 2002	Windsor Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	0–2	0–5	Friendly
4.	12 October 2002	Carlos Belmonte, Albacete, Spain	Northern Ireland	1–0	3–0	Euro 2004 qualifying
5.				3–0
6.	18 February 2004	Lluís Companys, Barcelona, Spain	Peru	2–1	2–1	Friendly
7.	5 June 2004	Alfonso Pérez, Getafe, Spain	Andorra	2–0	4–0	Friendly

Managerial career

In June 2011, Baraja returned to former team Atlético Madrid as part of newly appointed manager Gregorio Manzano's coaching staff.^[20] In the summer of 2013 he returned to main club Valencia, first coaching the youths^[21] then the reserves.

On 12 July 2015, Baraja was appointed manager of Elche CF, newly relegated to the second tier.^[22] On 6 June of the following year, he resigned after failing to agree new terms.^[23]

On 8 November 2016, Baraja took the reins at fellow league team Rayo Vallecano.^[24] After only three wins from 13 games, he was sacked on 20 February 2017 as they sat a point above the relegation places.^[25]

On 12 December 2017, Baraja was appointed at Sporting de Gijón.^[26] Towards the end of the season, he received a four-match ban and a €3,005 fine for preventing FC Barcelona B's Sergi Palencia from taking a throw-in;^[27] this included the first game of the play-offs, in which eventual champions Real Valladolid eliminated the Asturians 5–2 on aggregate in the semi-finals.^[28]

Personal life

Baraja's younger brother, Javier, was also a professional footballer. A defender, he too graduated at Valladolid, and went on to spend most of his senior career there.^[29]

Managerial statistics

As of 10 June 2018

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	Nat	From	To	Record								Ref
				G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
Valencia B (interim)		15 December 2013	22 December 2013	7000100000000000000♠1	7000100000000000000♠1	5000000000000000000♠0	5000000000000000000♠0	7000200000000000000♠2	7000100000000000000♠1	+1	7002100000000000000♠100.00	[30]
Elche		12 July 2015	6 June 2016	7001430000000000000♠43	7001130000000000000♠13	7001190000000000000♠19	7001110000000000000♠11	7001430000000000000♠43	7001490000000000000♠49	−6	07001302300000000000♠30.23	[31]
Rayo Vallecano		8 November 2016	20 February 2017	7001130000000000000♠13	7000300000000000000♠3	7000400000000000000♠4	7000600000000000000♠6	7001120000000000000♠12	7001140000000000000♠14	−2	07001230800000099999♠23.08	[32]
Sporting Gijón		12 December 2017	Present	7001260000000000000♠26	7001150000000000000♠15	7000200000000000000♠2	7000900000000000000♠9	7001410000000000000♠41	7001270000000000000♠27	+14	07001576900000000000♠57.69	[33]
Total				7001830000000000000♠83	7001320000000000000♠32	7001250000000000000♠25	7001260000000000000♠26	7001980000000000000♠98	7001910000000000000♠91	+7	07001385509999900000♠38.55	—

Honours

Club

Valencia^[3]

• 
  La Liga: 2001–02, 2003–04
  


• 
  Copa del Rey: 2007–08
  


• 
  UEFA Cup: 2003–04
  


• 
  UEFA Super Cup: 2004
  

Individual

• 
  ESM Team of the Year: 2001–02
  

References

External links

• 
  Rubén Baraja at BDFutbol


• 
  Rubén Baraja manager profile at BDFutbol


• 
  CiberChe biography and stats (in Spanish)
  


• 
  Rubén Baraja at National-Football-Teams.com


• 
  Rubén Baraja – FIFA competition record


• Spain stats at Eu-Football