Joaquin (footballer)

Joaquín Sánchez Rodríguez (El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz, July 21, 1981) is a Spanish former soccer player who played as a midfielder. His last team was Real Betis Balompié, where he managed to be the player with the most games played in the club's history.

Likewise, with his 622 appearances, he is the player with the most games played in the history of the Spanish league championship, a record shared with Andoni Zubizarreta. In February 2020, he was named Favorite Son of Andalusia. He is the only footballer who has managed to score a goal in the Spanish professional football league in four different decades (90, 00, 10 and 20).

In October 2022, after a successful presence on television and social networks, he made his debut as a television presenter, in prime time, with El novato, an interview program with popular characters that has had a wide audience.

Trajectory

Real Betis Balompié

Joaquín was born in El Puerto de Santa María, in the province of Cádiz, where he began as a footballer at C. D. Los Frailes, and later moved on to C. D. San Luis. In 1997 he joined the Real Betis Balompié youth academy. In the youth category, he won the Copa del Rey (1999) and a Super Cup with Betis, in a team that included, among others, Dani, Arzu and Toni Doblas. In the 1999-2000 season he played for Betis B, with whom he played 26 Second Division B games.

For the 2000-01 season, he was promoted to the first team and on August 20, 2000, at the age of 19, he played his first game, against Recreativo de Huelva, in the Colombino Trophy. His official debut in the Second Division It took place at the San Lázaro multipurpose stadium on September 3, 2000, against Compostela. In the following five years, Joaquín played practically everything with Real Betis Balompié and added more than 200 official matches with the club, assisting and scoring equally (50 decisive passes in league matches). His fame made Chelsea FC interested in his transfer.In the 2004-05 season, he played all the league games and scored five goals and three more goals in the Copa del Rey that the Betic team won.. In the final played at the Vicente Calderón on June 11, 2005 against Club Atlético Osasuna, he played the 90 minutes and extra time.

The following season, in the UEFA Champions League, he played in all six group stage games, including a 1-0 win against Chelsea and a 0-0 draw against Liverpool at Anfield (The team bético finished the league in third place, and obtained qualification for the UEFA Europa League as a minor prize).

At the end of the summer of 2006, the Andalusian club and Valencia C. F. had reached an agreement in principle to transfer the player to the Ché club. One day before the first league game, which was to face precisely the two clubs involved, the then largest shareholder of the Betic club, Manuel Ruiz de Lopera refused to transfer, even forcing Joaquín to go on loan to Albacete Balompié. In the end, said loan attempt was cancelled, although Joaquín did travel to the Albacete Balompié facilities, photographing himself with an operator from the La Mancha club. Finally, Joaquín ended up signing for Valencia for around 25 million euros, which at that time was the highest transfer made by the Andalusian club.

Valencia C.F.

With the 25 million paid for his transfer, Joaquín became at that time the most expensive signing in the history of Valencia C. F. Mestalla Stadium. In the act, Joaquín timidly reproached the authoritarian behavior of Manuel Ruiz de Lopera and thanked the leaders of Valencia for the effort and interest they showed in hiring him. In his first season, he played 35 games and scored five goals, Valencia qualified for the UEFA Champions League, finishing fourth in the League. His second season at the Ché club was the best in terms of numbers and titles, registering 7 goals and 8 assists as well as being proclaimed Copa del Rey champion despite a bad season in the league championship where Valencia ranked tenth. Despite the crisis and instability in the club that assumed a heavy debt where he began to sell his best assets, Joaquín was key in the Valencian team during his time at the club. In the 2008/09 season the club would continue in a results crisis, finishing sixth in the League.

In the 2009/10 season, Joaquín began to have a tough competition for the title with the young Pablo Hernández. During the course of the campaign the minutes were divided between them. Valencia would qualify for the Champions League again, finishing third in the League championship.

With the departure of David Villa to F. C. Barcelona, Joaquín was given the number 7 shirt in the 2010-11 season. He led the table of scorers for the Ché team after the first round. At the end of the campaign, Valencia was again third in the league and would fall in the round of 16 in the Champions League against FC Schalke 04.

The club plunged into a major economic crisis begins to sell its best players, including Joaquín, who had a year left on his contract and for which the Valencian team earned 4'5 million euros and saved his tab of 3 million net a year.

Malaga C.F.

Joaquín in the Malaga-Levante party (16/10/2011).

Joaquín spent two seasons with the Malaguista team, in which he played 60 official matches. He signed a 3-season contract with Málaga C.F. on July 24, 2011. His transfer was closed for an amount close to 4 million euros, at a time when the Costa del Sol team, sponsored by Sheikh Abdullah ben Nasser Al Thani, made a great investment in sports.

Joaquín completed an excellent first season, in which Málaga qualified in fourth position in the league and obtained a place in the UEFA Champions League for the first time in its history.

In their second season, they showed some brilliant performances in the First Division where they finished sixth, in the Copa del Rey where they were eliminated in the quarterfinals against Fútbol Club Barcelona. In the Champions League they demonstrated to Europe the level of "EuroMálaga" with Joaquín as one of the valuartes of the team that managed to beat rivals like AC Milan and FC Porto. Málaga reached the quarterfinals, losing in a controversial match against Borussia Dortmund. This level shown caused the media to talk about a second youth for Joaquín and ask for his return to the national team.

Málaga would dismantle his project due to the high debt the club faced and would sell Joaquín for 2 million euros to ACF Fiorentina.

ACF Fiorentina

On June 12, 2013, his transfer to ACF Fiorentina of the Italian Serie A was announced for 2 million euros. He stayed in this team for 2 years in which he managed to reach the semifinals of the UEFA Europa League and in which he played 71 official matches. In 2013/14 Fiore qualified fourth in the League, fell in the round of 16 in Europe League and was runner-up in the 2013-14 Italian Cup, losing to SSC Napoles. In the 2014/15 season, Fiorentina would once again finish fourth in the league and would fall in the semifinals in the Coppa Italia as well as in the Europa League where they would be eliminated in the semifinals by Sevilla Fútbol Club.

Return to Real Betis Balompié

Joaquín after receiving the champion trophy of the King's Cup in 2022 with the Royal Betis Balompié.

Joaquín in the UEFA Europe Ligue party played on February 17, 2022 against the Zenith of St.Petersburg.

On August 31, 2015, shortly before the transfer window closed, Joaquín's return to Real Betis Balompié was announced.

In his presentation with the team, he brought together more than 20,000 people at the Benito Villamarín stadium to experience the return of the idol of the fans. In this second period at Betis, he had a good sporting performance, especially in the season 2017-18, in which he remained as a starter in the lineups and as team captain. In December 2017, he extended his relationship with the club until 2020. That same month, he played the 469th game of his career in the League against Málaga C.F., making him the player with the most games in this championship in the 21st century. He also strengthened his relationship with Real Betis by investing 1,100,000 euros in the purchase of club shares, which made him the entity's fourth largest shareholder.

His long career in soccer has led him to star in various statistics. In the match against SD Huesca on the thirty-seventh league day of the 2018-19 season, he scored his 100th goal in his professional career. In November 2019 he reached the all-time record for league victories, without ever having played in none of the big three, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona or Atlético and a month later in the player with the most defeats in the history of this competition. In December of that same year, he scored three goals in a match against Athletic and also became the oldest player to achieve a hat-trick in the Spanish competition, a record later surpassed by Jorge Molina.

Likewise, with his 600 matches (as of May 22, 2022), he is the second player with the most matches played in the history of the Spanish First Division, only surpassed by Andoni Zubizarreta with 622 matches.

On December 26, 2019, he extended his contract with the béticos for one more year, until reaching 2021. It is in 2021 when he signs again for another year.

On May 11, 2021, he became the Betis player with the most appearances wearing the club's jersey, surpassing Esnaola, with 461.

2021-2023

This season, although he became somewhat less regular in the starting lineups, he played 36 games and scored 2 goals in all competitions. As captain he lifted the Copa del Rey champion trophy, in the final that he played against one of his former teams, Valencia C.F. and in which he got one of the penalties in the final shootout that gave the victory to the Betic team.

In the 2022-23 Europa League, he became the oldest player to play a match in the competition and also the oldest to score a goal.

To see him off due to his retirement, Real Betis organized a tribute match in which a team of historic footballers from the Betis team faced off against a team of world legends.

National team

He has been international with the Spanish team on 51 occasions. His debut as an international took place on February 13, 2002 in the Spain 1-1 Portugal match. Brilliantly for Betis, he was called up for the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan.

In his second game of that World Cup, in the quarterfinals against South Korea, he was involved in two contentious decisions, including an incident in which the linesman raised the flag for a goal kick as Joaquín was crossing a ball to Fernando Morientes, who was denied a golden goal. The argument was that the ball had crossed the line, however replays showed that he did not. The game then went to a penalty shootout and Joaquín was chosen to launch Spain's fourth attempt, which was blocked by Lee Woon-Jae.

Played again for Spain in two of three games (once as a starter) through the nation's premature exit at Euro 2004, as well as being selected for the 2006 World Cup (which totaled five games, but not first choice in any competition).

After the match between Northern Ireland and Spain in the qualification for the Eurocopa 2008, which was the second consecutive non-caption of Joaquín and which ended with the result of 3-2, the player made the following statements: &# 34;Right now, the national team is a mess. It's chaos, and Luis doesn't know how to handle these difficult ones. Honestly, I think that I have never had the confidence of the coach. There was a moment when I did have that confidence, in the game that was played at the Bernabéu against England. But when things have gone regular he has always dispensed with me and I have not noticed having that confidence. Whenever there has been talk of cleanliness in the team, I have been the first to fall. I expected this non-call." He later commented: "The only thing I wanted to say is that these are not clear times for the national team after losing to Northern Ireland, but it was not my intention to attack the team or Luis Aragonés".

Joaquín would play for the national team again on June 2, 2007 in an away win against Latvia. He played his last international match on November 17, 2007, against Sweden, in another qualifying match for Euro 2008.

Participations in Eurocups

Euro	Headquarters	Outcome
Euro 2004	Portugal	First phase

Participations in World Cups

World	Headquarters	Outcome
2002 Football World Cup	South KoreaSouth Korea and JapanJapan	Final rooms
2006 Football World Cup	GermanyGermany	Final Octavos

Goals as international

#	Date	Place	Rival	Gol	Outcome	Competition
1.	4 February 2003	Estadio Municipal Reino de León, León, Spain	ARMArmenia	3-	3–0	Euro 2004
2.	6 September 2003	Dom Afonso Henriques, Guimarães, Portugal	BYPortugal	0–2	0-3	Friendly
3.	9 February 2005	Mediterranean Stadium, Almería, Spain	SMRSan Marino	1-	5-0	World rankings 2006
4.	26 March 2005	Estadio Helmántico, Salamanca, Spain	CHNChina	3-	3–0	Friendly

Statistics

Clubs

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Club	Div.	Season	League			Cups national(1)			Cups international(2)			Total (3)			Media Shotgun
			Part.	Goles	Assist.	Part.	Goles	Assist.	Part.	Goles	Assist.	Part.	Goles	Assist.
Real Betis Balompié "B" SpainSpain	2.a B	1999-00	27	2	?	-	-	-	-	-	-	27	2	0+	0.07
Real Betis Balompié SpainSpain	2. a	2000-01	38	3	?	1	-	-	-	-	-	39	3	0+	0.08
	1. a	2001-02	34	4	9	1	-	-	-	-	-	35	4	9	0.11
		2002-03	37	9	12	3	2	1	5	1	-	45	12	13	0.27
		2003-04	36	7	12	3	1	-	-	-	-	39	8	12	0.21
		2004-05	38	5	15	9	-	-	-	-	-	47	5	15	0.11
		2005-06	35	3	6	4	-	-	12	-	3	51	3	9	0.06
Valencia C. F. SpainSpain	1. a	2006-07	35	5	3	3	-	-	8	-	2	46	5	5	0.11
		2007-08	34	3	4	8	4	-	7	-	4	49	7	8	0.14
		2008-09	31	4	6	5	1	2	4	1	1	40	6	9	0.15
		2009-10	28	2	4	4	1	-	13	4	3	45	7	7	0.16
		2010-11	30	4	7	3	-	1	5	1	1	38	5	9	0.13
	Total club		158	18	24	23	6	3	37	6	11	218	30	38	0.14
Málaga C. F. SpainSpain	1. a	2011-12	23	2	3	2	-	-	-	-	-	25	2	3	0.08
		2012-13	34	4	5	1	1	1	10	3	1	45	8	7	0.18
	Total club		57	6	8	3	1	1	10	3	1	70	10	10	0.14
A. C. F. Fiorentina ItalyItaly	1. a	2013-14	26	2	6	5	1	1	6	2	-	37	5	7	0.14
		2014-15	23	2	3	3	-	1	8	-	1	34	2	5	0.06
	Total club		49	4	9	8	1	2	14	2	1	71	7	12	0.10
Real Betis Balompié SpainSpain	1. a	2015-16	30	1	5	2	-	-	-	-	-	32	1	5	0.03
		2016-17	28	3	4	1	-	-	-	-	-	29	3	4	0.10
		2017-18	35	4	7	1	-	-	-	-	-	36	4	7	0.11
		2018-19	30	6	-	7	1	-	6	-	-	43	7	0	0.16
		2019-20	34	8	2	2	2	-	-	-	-	36	10	2	0.28
		2020-21	27	2	2	3	-	-	-	-	-	30	2	2	0.07
		2021-22	21	-	1	5	2	2	10	-	1	36	2	4	0.06
		2022-23	22	-	2	1	-	-	7	1	-	30	1	2	0.03
	Total club		445	55	77	43	8	3	40	2	4	528	65	84	0.12
Total career			736	85	118	77	16	9	101	13	17	914	114	144	0.12
(1) Includes data from Copa del Rey (2000-2023), Supercopa de España (2005-06 and 2008-09)/ Coppa Italia (2013-15). (2) Includes European League data (2002-19); Champions League (2005-13).

Hat-tricks

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Matches in which he scored three or more goals
N.o	Date	Stadium	Party			Goles	Competition
1	8 December 2019	Benito Villamarín, Seville	Real Betis	3 - 2	Athletic Club		2019-20 League

Honours of Prizes

National tournaments

Title	Club	Country	Year
Copa del Rey	Real Betis Balompié	SpainSpain	2004-05
Copa del Rey	Valencia C. F.	SpainSpain	2007-08
Copa del Rey	Real Betis Balompié	SpainSpain	2021-22

Individual awards

Media

Joaquín, the usual media, interviews GP champion Marc Marquez on a tourist bus.

In October 2022, he made his debut as a television presenter, in prime time, with El novato, an interview program with popular characters that has had a wide audience.

Television

Series

TV Shows

Cinema