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Iñigo Idiakez
	Iñigo Idiakez
Personal information
Full name	Iñigo Idiakez Barkaiztegi
Date of birth	8 November 1973 (age 36)
Place of birth	San Sebastián, Spain
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Youth career
1989–1992	Real Sociedad
Senior career1
National team2
	1 Senior club appearances and goals; counted for the domestic league only and; correct as of October 31, 2008.; 2 National team caps and goals correct; as of October 31, 2008.; * Appearances (Goals)

This is a Spanish name; the first family name is Idiakez and the second is Barkaiztegi.

Iñigo Idiakez Barkaiztegi (born 8 November 1973 in San Sebastián, Guipúzcoa), is a former Spanish football midfielder (occasionally forward).

[edit] Club career

[edit] Spain

In 1992 Idiakez joined Real Sociedad, starting in the youth team before moving up to the B team, where he joined his older brother, Imanol. He made his first team debut on 8 November 1992, on his 19th birthday, against Cádiz CF in the first division. Despite that early debut, he did not become a regular member of the first team squad until the 1994–95 season. Between 1992 and 1994 he played two seasons in the B team, then operating in the the third division.

From 1994–95 on, Idiakez amassed a further eight league seasons, making 233 league appearances with 33 goals. During most of these seasons he was a regular substitute and, in 1998–99 and 2000–01, scored a career-best seven league goals.

At the end of the 2001–02 season, having finished his link with Real Sociedad, Idiakez signed with Real Oviedo, who had just been relegated to the Spanish second division, and were in a deep financial crisis. He only spent one season with the Asturias side, and Oviedo finished the season penultimate, being relegated to the third division. They were then demoted one stage further because of financial ireegularities.

Idiákez then moved to another second division side, Madrid's Rayo Vallecano. Again, his new club finished second from the bottom and were relegated in 2003–04. After two unsuccessful seasons, his future appeared quite uncertain in the summer of 2004.

[edit] England

George Burley (then Derby County manager) signed Idiakez up on a free transfer. He immediately adapted to the Football League Championship, playing 96 games and scoring 22 goals (in all competitions) by the end of the 2005–06 season. In his debut season, was named player of the season, as Derby finished in 4th place, but failed to win promotion through the play-offs.

At Derby, he played in an advanced position and took most throw-ins and corners. At the end of 2005–06, under managers Phil Brown (until January) and Terry Westley, the team only finished in 20th position, narrowly avoiding relegation.

On 31 August 2006, Idiakez was once again signed by Burley, moving to Southampton for £275,000. After only a handful of appearances for the Saints, in March 2007, he moved to Queens Park Rangers on loan for a month, returning on 17 April.^[1]

In the 2006–07 season Championship playoff semi-final, on 15 May, Southampton played Derby County. After the tie finished 4–4 on aggregate after extra time, the match went to a penalty shootout and Idiákez missed the crucial penalty helping send his former club through to the final.^[2]

At the end of 2007–08, Southampton released Idiákez, who then underwent a trial with Major League Soccer side San Jose Earthquakes and also had a trial at Bournemouth but was not offered a contract.

[edit] International career

Idiákez played at under-21 level, and participated in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

He has also played in four friendly games for the Basque representative side Euskadi, scoring twice.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Stats at Liga de Fútbol Profesional (Spanish)
BDFutbol profile
Iñigo Idiakez career stats at Soccerbase
Official website

[0] Saints recall Idiakez

[1] Southampton-Derby, 2007 Championship playoff

[1]

[2]