Profiles - Manu

MANUEL FERNANDEZ MUÑIZ 'MANU'
Squad Number 10/11: 13
Date of Birth: 09 May, 1986
Place of Birth: Gijón, Asturias
Nationality: Spain (International with the youth teams)
Contract: 2007 - 2011
Transfer: Free transfer (2007)
Career: Deportivo (2009-now), Deportivo B (2007-2009), Sporting de Gijón (2001-2007)
Buy-out Clause: ??
Height: 184 cm
Weight: 76 kg
Position: Goalkeeper

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MANUEL FERNANDEZ 'MANU' is a young keeper that Deportivo was chasing since December of 2004, but the Galician club wasn't able to complete the operation until the summer of 2007 after he was released from Sporting Gijón. He has been international in the majority of young categories in Spain (U-15, U-16, U-17 and U-19), but his career was blocked at Sporting's first squad, then he moved to Depor; after two seasons at Fabril the keeper was promoted to Depor’s first team and finally had the chance to debut at Primera División. Currently he is the second keeper at Deportivo.

The Asturian keeper began his career at an early age; Manu was discovered by Emilio de Dios when he was playing in the team of La Braña. De Dios, who was the sporting director of Sporting Gijón at the time, decided to take him to the Asturian club. He arrived and played in the category known as Liga Nacional (season 2001-2002). He played 30 games with the team and was called to Spain's U-15 squad.
 
For the season 2002/2003, he was promoted to the next category: División de Honor. He played 48 matches during the following two seasons and he was also included in Spain's U-16 & U-17 squads. The season 2003/2004 was very good for Manu, his team won the División de Honor championship and newspaper AS included him in the 'dream team' of that particular category.

Then Manu continued ascending and a few months later, he was called to Spain's U-19 squad in order to face the 2004 European championship. A trophy that Spain won, although Manu only played one game (4-1 win over Poland). Later, he was promoted to Sporting B, a squad that was playing at Tercera División. He participated in 46 matches during the seasons 2004/2005 and 2005/2006. He was first linked with Deportivo in December of the year 2004, the Galician club was trying to sign Manu and his team mate Javi Fuego –who later was signed by UD Levante- Lendoiro offered €600,000 for the duo plus the loan of goalkeeper Gustavo Munúa and the transfer of midfielder Jesús Muñoz. But the operation was discarded by Sporting's authorities.

At the middle of the season 2005/2006, Manu was promoted to Sporting's first squad. But this movement resulted to be negative for the Asturian keeper. A Galician colleague, Roberto, blocked his progress and Manu was only able to play two games during the season 2005/2006 (0-1 loss with Málaga and 1-0 win over Real Murcia) Thing went worse as he didn't play any single game during the following campaign (2006/2007). Manu's contract was ending in June of 2007, and knowing that he didn't have a future inside the club, he refused to sign an extension.
 
The authorities at Sporting were angry with Manu's attitude, the keeper was punished and excluded from any competition after he refused to sing the new contract. The bad luck continued in December of 2006 as the young keeper suffered a serious injury in the right knee during a training (Meniscus). He never wore again the shirt of Sporting. Recovered from his injury, he arrived to La Coruña on July of 2007 and signed a four-year contract with Depor.

But there was no room for him at Lotina’s Deportivo. The Basque coach had the duo Aouate-Munúa as his two goalkeepers for the first team and the Asturian was forced to move to Deportivo B, it was the only chance to enjoy of some minutes since no concrete offers were received to loan him out. As a god professional, Manu never complained for his miseries at Depor, he was hoping to play at Primera División and ended as the backup for Fabricio, who at the time was the starting keeper of Deportivo B. Therefore the year 2007 was a really dark period for Manu, he only played five games with Fabril and it seemed his only solution was an exit during the winter window. Hércules FC (Segunda División) was interested in a loan, but Manu would stay at Depor after the fight between Aouate and Munúa. Suddenly the Asturian was the second keeper of Depor’s first squad, always behind Fabricio, he was sited on the bench during the visits to UD Almeria and Villarreal FC, both games were defeats for the first team. Later Manu returned to Fabril as the duo Fabricio-Aouate stayed as the keepers of the first squad. At least things changed for good during 2008, with Fabricio out of shape, the ex-Sporting keeper became the starter of Deportivo B and played the last nine games of the season, including the two matches for the playoffs, always showing a good level.

Finally, on the season 2008/2009 the Asturian goalkeeper had the chance to debut at Primera División. He was promoted to the first team and stayed as the second keeper of Lotina’s squad. He was the keeper during the Copa Del Rey tournament, and ironically he had the big opportunity to play for the first time in la liga at the club where he started his career: Sporting Gijón. It was after Aranzubia was sent off at El Molinón (matchday 28). Manu allowed a penalty goal at the last minute of the game and Depor lost the encounter. Later he commented about the issue, “The truth is that it almost caught me by surprise as I practically was sitting on the bench. But when I saw that the referee was running towards Dani [Aranzubia] I was almost taken off my pants because I said, "He's going to send him off." And fate wanted me to debut at Primera División playing in my hometown.”

Three days later Manu was defending the goal for the home liga encounter against Getafe (1-3), it ended to be one of the worst matches on the season for Deportivo and there were some doubts on the performance of the ex-Sporting. But Aranzubia was pretty content with him and awarded the keeper with a new opportunity during the final match in liga at Athletic Bilbao. The truth is that he was the best man on the match due to his saves. Now, Manu will try to keep evolving and although he knows that Aranzubia is the starter, he is ready to wait patiently.

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