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JOSÉ MANUEL MÉNDEZ ERIMIA ‘MANEL’
Date of Birth: 7 January, 1971
Nationality: Spain
Period at Deportivo: 1999 - 2002
Transfer: Free Transfer (1999, Real Oviedo)
Clubs: Eibar (2004-2005), Ciudad de Murcia (2003-2004), Sporting de Gijón (2002-2003), Tenerife (2001-2002, on loan), Numancia (2000-2001, on loan), Deportivo (2000-2002), Real Oviedo (1992-1999), Avilés
Sold: As part of the Pablo Amo transfer (2002, to Sporting de Gijón)
Height: 170 cm
Weight: 65 kg
Position: Defender/Midfielder (left)
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 Experienced left-side player MANEL was signed as replacement for Bonnissel who left Deportivo in 1999. One year before Romero had been signed and the Andalucian defender quickly took charge of the left defensive spot. In Manel the Galicians found a cheap alternative as he was out of contract at Oviedo that summer.
Short Manel was twenty-three when in September, 1994 he played his first match in the Primera División under coach Radomir Antic. The year before he had won promotion with Oviedo from the Segunda División and he played twenty-four matches at the highest level, most of them as a substitute. At Oviedo he shared the dressing room with players like Armando, César Martín and Jokanovic; all of them would one day play at Deportivo. Oviedo finished ninth and Antic made Atlético champions in the season after it.
During his other four seasons at Oviedo he played a total of 147 matches and was an undisputed starter. The season 1998/1999 he played under Galician coach Fernando Vázquez and the team finished fourteenth in the table. Still better than the seventeenth and eighteenth place of the years before but Manel wanted more. That’s why aged twenty-eigth he signed at Deportivo until 30 June, 2004 and arrived together with César Martín with him.
But Manel knew he had come as an replacement of Romero and therefore wouldn’t start much matches. During the first four Liga matches of the season he was given three entrances but between September and January he featured in just one other match: Manel was given eight minutes during a 0-1 win against his ex-club Oviedo. Manel started one Liga match that season against Alavés (2-1 loss). After this one he was given just twenty-seven more minutes: during a 3-1 home win against… Oviedo.
It concerned the last match he played for Deportivo in the Liga but still speedy Manel could celebrate: his first, and only, season at the club ended up in a Liga title. The first ever in the history of Deportivo. That title inspired president Lendoiro to make another huge investment and he persuaded talented Atlético defender Joan Capdevila to join them. With both Romero and Capdevila as his rivals Manel’s future at the club looked dark.
In 2000 the club arranged a loan deal with newly-promoted Numancia and together with David Pirri and José Manuel he played at the Soria stadium. Manel missed only five matches but couldn’t avoid Numancia finishing last and relegating. As things at Deportivo hadn’t changed, Romero and Capdevila divided the left wing, another loan out was arranged for the season 2001/2002. This time he played at Tenerife with a similar scenario. He participated in most of their matches but again it ended up in relegation.
That year new signing Jorge Andrade soon suffered a serious injury at Deportivo and Lendoiro quickly signed Sporting Gijón defender Pablo Amo. In this deal Manel was included and that’s how he ended up playing at Oviedo’s eternal rivals. After it he also played at Ciudad de Murcia and Eibar.
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