Do You Remember Him? #1- Gaizka Mendieta

Biodata

Full Name: Gaizka Mendieta Zabala

Nationality: Spanish

Date of Birth: 27 March 1974

Position: Right Midfielder

Former Clubs:

1992 CD Castellon

1992-1994 Valencia B

1993-2001 Valencia

2001-2004 Lazio

2002-2003 Barcelona (loan)

2003-2004 Middlesbrough (loan)

2004-2008 Middlesbrough

International Career:

1999-2002 Spain

Achievement:

Valencia

1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup

1998-1999 Copa del Rey

1999 Supercopa de Espana

Middlesbrough

2003-2004 EFL League Cup

Career

When you thinking of players who had a huge transfer fee early of the Millenium, who will most of us think of? Zinedine Zidane? Luis Figo? Or even Hernan Crespo? However, does anyone of us remember of one Spanish attacking force from the Basque County who attracts an Italian giant to splash out the cash? He is Gaizka Mendieta.

Mendieta started his career in CD Castellon in the Segunda Division. He made his professional debut at just 17 and mostly featured as a full-back. His stay in the Spanish second division is just a short one as he had been snapped up by Valencia one season later. Mendieta spent most of his first two years in Valencia with the reserves and starting to gain more playing time in the 1995-1996 season. He started to show his presences in the team as Valencia achieved runners-up in that very same season. Overtaking the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona in that season.

The arrival of Claudio Ranieri in Valencia proved to be crucial in Mendieta’s career in a whole. He was shifted into a central midfield role and evolved to be the general of Valencia’s midfield. Mendieta’s talent was soon spotted by Jose Antonio Camacho, the Spanish national team manager at that time and was given his first international cap in 1999. Mendieta’s season ended perfectly by winning his first major trophy by beating Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey. His career blossoms when he helped Valencia achieved to consecutive UEFA Champions League finals in 2000 and 2001. Even though he was on the losing side, he was still awarded as the ‘UEFA Best Midfielder of the Year’ on both occasions. In the same period, he also represented the Spanish National Team in the Euro 2000 tournament and registered two goals and one assist in the same tournament.

Mendieta’s stock was never been higher after his achievements in Valencia, he was one of the most wanted players across Europe in 2001. Eventually, he transferred to Lazio with a hefty 47.7mil Euro transfer fee. In which he is still the second-highest transfer fee paid by Lazio just behind Hernan Crespo. However, his time in Rome is far from impressive. He had neither registered a single goal or assist in his single campaign in Italy. After helping the Spanish national team to reach Quarterfinals in 2002 World Cup, Mendieta was soon loaned out to Barcelona for one season to regain his form. Even though he scored 6 goals and registered 7 assists in 49 games in that season, his form was not enough to persuade Barcelona to sign him permanently.

He subsequently moved on to Middlesbrough despite interest from several clubs in his homeland. His first season in England is proved to be very successful. In the first season, he helped Middlesbrough to win their first-ever silverware, which is the EFL League Cup in 2003-2004 season. However, in his last two years, injuries have hampered his career and directly causes his place in this Middlesbrough side. One of the injuries caused him to miss Middlesbrough final clash with Sevilla in 2006 UEFA Cup final. Even though the Chief Executive at that time, Kevin Lamb had stated that there is no chance for Mendieta featuring in the first team, he was intended to stay at the club to fight for a place.

On December 2007, he announced his retirement from professional football when his Middlesbrough contract expired at the end of the 2007-2008 season.

Post Retirement

Since his retirement, Mendieta has actively pursued his career as a DJ. His debut on the decks came in 2010 at Spain’s Festival Internacional de Benicassim. He is also a pundit of a number of football channels including Sky Sport’s Spanish La Liga coverage. In the same time, Mendieta also works as one of the La Liga’s football ambassadors who work with other former La Liga players to boost the image of the league internationally.