Fernando Sánchez Cipitria

Fernando Sánchez Cipitria (born 12 September 1971), known simply as Fernando, is a Spanish former footballer who played mostly as a left midfielder,[1] and is the manager of Chinese club Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard FC.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Sánchez and the second or maternal family name is Cipitria.
Fernando
Personal information
Full name Fernando Sánchez Cipitria
Date of birth (1971-09-12) 12 September 1971
Place of birth Madrid, Spain
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard (coach)
Youth career
Real Madrid
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1990–1992 Real Madrid C
1992–1995 Real Madrid B 68 (2)
1992–1993 → Leganés (loan) 26 (3)
1995–1997 Valladolid 78 (18)
1997–1999 Betis 60 (4)
1999–2003 Deportivo La Coruña 33 (3)
2001–2002 → Osasuna (loan) 30 (2)
2002 → Hannover (loan) 2 (0)
2003 → Córdoba (loan) 6 (1)
Total 303 (33)
National team
1998 Spain 2 (0)
Teams managed
2007 Laguna
2008–2009 Collado Villalba
2019– Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

He appeared in 207 La Liga matches over seven seasons (27 goals), for four teams.

Club career

Fernando was born in Madrid. An unsuccessful youth graduate from Real Madrid, he made his La Liga debut with Real Valladolid in the 1995–96 season, with the side being coached by a young Rafael Benítez and also featuring former Real Madrid Castilla teammates José Luis Santamaría and Alberto Marcos.

In the following campaign, with Fernando scoring a career-best 11 goals, the Castile and León team qualified to the UEFA Cup after finishing seventh.[2] Subsequently, he signed with Real Betis, posting two respectable top flight seasons.

Fernando joined Deportivo de La Coruña for 1999–2000, and appeared in 19 games for Super Depor in the Galicians first-ever top division accolade. He would be, however, soon be deemed surplus to requirements, and served three consecutive loans until his retirement at 32: he played the first part of the 2002–03 campaign at Hannover 96 in Germany, alongside teammates Jaime (also with him at Real Madrid) and José Manuel,[3] but soon grew unsettled and returned to Spain.

Fernando focused on youth training after retirement. In 2012, he joined Evergrande Football School founded by Guangzhou Evergrande FC, where he worked as technical director and head coach.[4]

Fernando joined Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard FC's youth side in the 2018 season,[5] and was promoted to the first team on 1 January 2019.[6]

International career

Fernando earned two caps for the Spain national team, over the course of two months. His first arrived on 28 January 1998, as he came on as an 82nd-minute substitute for Guillermo Amor in a 0–1 away friendly loss in France.[7]

References
  1. "Fernando" (in German). kicker. Retrieved 24 April 2011.
  2. "Vuelve el 'Europucela'" ['Europucela' is back]. Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 16 June 1997. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  3. "Spanische Begegnungen" [Spanish moves] (in German). Hannover 96. 30 July 2010. Retrieved 31 July 2016.
  4. Zhe, Tang (30 March 2012). "Real Madrid system coming to Guangzhou academy soon". China Daily. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  5. 前西班牙国脚费尔南多接过新疆天山雪豹足球队教鞭 [Former Spanish international Fernando took over as coach of the Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard football team] (in Chinese). Sina. 6 December 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  6. 新疆官方宣布西班牙籍新主帅上任 曾担任恒大足校青训总监 [Xinjiang officially announced that the new Spanish manager and former youth director at Evergrande took office.] (in Chinese). Tencent QQ. 1 January 2019. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  7. "Se acabó la racha" [Streak over]. Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 29 January 1998. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
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