Profiles - Pablo Alvarez
PABLO ALVAREZ NUÑEZ
Squad Number 09/10: 14
Date of Birth: 14 May, 1980
Place of Birth: Oviedo, Asturias
Nationality: Spain
Contract: 2006 - 2009
Transfer: Free Transfer (2006)
Career: Deportivo (2008-now), Racing Santander (2007-2008, loan), Deportivo (2006-2007), Sporting Gijón (2001-2006), Sporting Gijón B (1998-2001), Lugo (1989-1998)
Buy-out Clause: ??
Height: 174 cm
Weight: 67 kg
Position: Attacking Midfielder (right/left)
Galician/Asturian winger PABLO ÁLVAREZ, although born in Oviedo (Asturias), was one the many new arrivals in the summer of 2006. Actually he was already signed in January of that year; an awful injury prevented his debut until almost one year later. That debut, including a goal, against Valladolid was very promising. Versatile Pablo Álvarez was appointed to be the successor of Víctor Sánchez at Depor’s right wing, but he had to play loaned at Racing Santander during the season 2007/2008 in order to have playing minutes, now he wants to convince everybody at La Coruña.
Álvarez’ family lives in Galicia and young Pablo learned the basics of football in Lugo. There his father works in an Agricultural School and his brother plays for the regional team of Santa Comba. Pablo Álvarez and his friend Paco Corredoira (ex-Compostela, now at Racing de Ferrol) wrote history when they helped with the promotion of a young Lugo team to the División de Honor. In 1998, aged 18, he joined Sporting Gijón. Instantly he was nicknamed as 'El Gallego' or 'Galleguín' for his origin and his particular accent. He played in the youth teams of Sporting until he was promoted to the first squad (2001).
His statistics of his last three seasons at Gijón include 97 matches and 19 goals. At Sporting he was considered one of their best players those years and certainly one of the best crossers in the Segunda División. Scoring one goal every five matches means that on many occasions he showed his unique goal celebration: pretending to be a shark. For that reason he deserved another nickname: ‘Tibu’ (short for Tiburón = shark). Besides his crosses, his technique, velocity and heading abilities should be mentioned. It’s said that Quini (Sporting’s all-time topscorer) himself taught him how to head the ball.
In December 2005 he was one of best players when the resurrected team of Galicia played against Uruguay. A few weeks later the media started to pick up stories that Pablo Álvarez, whose contract was running out in June 2006, would sign at Deportivo. Bad luck struck when in April of that year he suffered a broken leg against Lleida. But that setback didn’t halt his move to Deportivo. The winger continued his recuperation process in Gijón supervised by Depor's doctors. In July his move was officially confirmed by Depor’s website.
His debut came on January 31st 2007 in Riazor during the Copa match against Valladolid. He scored Depor’s equaliser and with it paved the way for a 4-1 victory, enough to have a comfortable position in the return match (1-1). “It have been nine months since my injury”, Pablo Álvarez said, “and I still cannot believe that I’ve returned". Three days later he made his debut in the Primera División during the 1-0 win against Mallorca. His first starting position he claimed on February 18th 2007 at home against Levante (0-0). Despite his promising debut, Caparrós didn't trust in him and Pablo only played 343 minutes during 7 liga games.
Things seemed to be fine with the arrival of Miguel Angel Lotina at the start of the season 2007/2008, the Basque coach even appointed the winger was one of the main surprises that he found at Depor, but strangely, he never appeared in his plans. In fact, by December of 2007 he was the player with lesser minutes AT the squad: only eleven minutes. Time he spent over the grass during the last part of the 1-0 victory over Sevilla. Therefore, 'the shark' was loaned in January of 2008 to Racing Santander, place where he met Marcelino again, his former coach at Sporting Gijón.
And it was a right move, because in Santander Pablo disputed 18 of the 19 liga matches since his arrival to Racing (965 minutes), he also scored one goal. The time spent on the pitch was more than Lotina could promise to him at Deportivo. His solo goal in liga came in the home victory over Osasuna (matchday 19). The chance opened his eyes as the player realised the best thing for him was to stay at Racing, besides the Cantabrian club was very happy with his performance and pushed strongly for his signing. However president Lendoiro discarded the issue because Racing was intending to sing the player for free. Besides coach Lotina now needed a replacement for Christian Wilhelmsson who left the club in June of 2008 and Pablo was a good choice for it. Other club interested in the right winger was Real Zaragoza, club that signed his old friend Marcelino as the coach for the 2008/2009 campaign.
Despite that Lotina was now seeing Pablo Álvarez as a useful player at the squad, Pablo himself still had doubts about his possible role in Depor; he was still reminding that something similar occurred to him in the previous year. Therefore he was anxious to resolve his destiny before the deadline in the summer market, as he stated two weeks before the start in liga: “I talked to the coach, because August 31 is getting closer and my situation has to be resolved. I want to be useful no matter where I could be. Maybe the best thing is to go out to another team. Here things seem to be made without too much logic. If you have a player who barely plays and you can save some pennies with his contract, the normal thing would be to allow his exit, but we already know how things work on here.”
And what Alvarez feared occurred, because no matter the words of Lotina, the winger stayed as a second choice and barely played in the three competitions disputed by the team, at least during the first round of la liga season 08/09. And it’s that Lotina’s preferred choice was to play with Lafita on the right wing and with Guardado on the left. Despite the lack of participation, the club decided to present a renewal offer to Pablo (his contract was ruling out in June of 2009). But ‘the Shark’ wasn’t sure about the offer, he told to reporters that he delayed any decision until the end of the season because he wanted to know if he would have more chances on the pitch, “I have to wait and see what happens during the end of the season. And then we will decide. I am grateful to Deportivo for the offer, because I want to continue. But things have to go slowly. To see how the season ends.“
Things changed for Pablo at the last part of the liga tournament, Lotina was now betting on him since Lafita was at the door out to Zaragoza and Pablo played more than ever before during the last ten games in liga, period of time in which he performed in all the games and making seven appearances as starter. He also scored two important goals in that part of the campaign: the winning goals against Athletic Bilbao (matchday 31) and Recreativo de Huelva (matchday 35). Later Alvarez explained in an interview that the goal against Athletic was a key moment during his career at Depor, “From a personal point of view, the match against Athletic Bilbao was very important to me. I played as starter; it was long time since I scored my last goal and I was lucky enough to score just when I was going to be replaced. Hence I think my luck changed and I was able to play the latest games.”
That new confidence by coach Lotina convinced him and that’s why Pablo decided to sign the renewal of contract for three more seasons. After the event took place, the player explained the reasons for his decision, “I'm happy because I’m where I wanted to be. Since I signed for Depor, it was clear I wanted to spend many years on here. This past year I have lived good and bad moments, but I really stick to the good ones and want to enjoy of continuity in a club like Depor, which is very important. Also, I had the support of my colleagues and the fans. In the end all counts, and hopefully I will be healthy enough and will be able to give the best of me.”
NUMBERS AT DEPORTIVO
LIGA
| Season | Games played | Games as starter | minutes | yellow cards | red cards | goals |
| 2006-2007 | 7 | 4 | 343 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 2007-2008 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2008-2009 | 21 | 14 | 1,115 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Totals | 29 | 18 | 1,469 | 5 | 0 | 2 |
COPA
|
Season |
games played |
games as starter |
minutes |
yellow cards |
red cards |
goals |
|
2006-2007 |
2 |
2 |
180 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
2008-2009 |
3 |
3 |
250 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Totals |
5 |
5 |
430 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
EUROPE
| Season | Comp | Games played | games as starter | minutes | yellow cards | red cards | goals |
| 2008-2009 | UEFA/INT | 2 | 1 | 134 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Totals | 2 | 1 | 134 | 1 | 1 | 0 |