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MANUEL FERNANDEZ MUÑIZ 'MANU'
Squad Number 07/08: ?
Date of Birth: 09 May, 1986
Nationality: Spain
Contract: 2007 - 2011
Transfer: Free transfer (2007)
Previous Clubs: 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 has been linked with Deportivo since December of 2004, but the Galician club wasn't able to concrete the operation until the summer of 2007 and 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 in Sporting's first squad, for that reason he chose to come to 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 that 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 in Tercera. 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. Lendoiro offered €600,000 for the duo plus the loan of Munúa and the transfer of 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 Vs. Málaga and 1-0 Vs. Murcia) He didn't play any single game during the 2006/2007 campaign. 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 in Sporting were angry with Manu's attitude, and the keeper was punished and excluded from any competition after he refused to sing the extension. The bad luck continued affecting him and at the end of the year 2006, 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.
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