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Date of Birth: Monday, January 17, 1983
Birth Place: Spain
Height: 183cm
Position: Defender
Former Clubs/Teams: Deportivo La Coruña, Real Madrid

Biography

Alvaro Arbeloa is a defender for Spain. Whilst he is usually deployed as a right full-back, he has played on the left-hand side and in the centre of defence. He is a tall and athletic defender, who can be relied upon to stay back and defend whilst his team-mates are on the attack – he scored his first goal for Liverpool after 35 games!

Childhood

Alvaro Arbeloa was born on 17th January 1983 in Salamanca, Spain. With no large clubs situated nearby, Alvaro took to supporting Real Madrid as a boy, and managed to win himself a place in their academy at the age of 14. Some steady progress at Real in the B and C teams led to his debut at 21 years old.

Early Career

Because Real Madrid had such star players, Arbeloa was forced to spend years in the reserve team, which pushed him to make the decision to leave the club in order to get more games. No-one leaves Real Madrid without feeling regret later in life, but Arbeloa believed it was the right decision.

Having established himself into the Deportivo first-team, Arbeloa became a wanted man – many club coaches had seen him play in the reserves for Real Madrid but weren’t sure whether he would be able to play at the very top level. At Deportivo La Coruna, he proved he was a confident and capable defender.

Current Club

Spanish manager Rafa Benitez was on the look-out for a talented right-back so that he could move club legend Jamie Carragher to centre back, and Alvaro Arbeloa fitted the bill – a young, hungry defender who would fit straight into his team of Spaniards. Arbeloa arrived at Liverpool for around £3m on 31st January 2007, just 6 months after leaving Real Madrid.

Whilst he struggled to cope with the pace of the English game to start with, Arbeloa was thrown in at the deep end by a trusting Rafa Benitez - facing Barcelona in the Champions League, Alvaro was given the task of man-marking Lionel Messi out of the game, which he did with some aplomb.

In 2007/08, Arbeloa consolidated his position as Liverpool’s first choice right-back, although the Arrival of Andrea Dossena and Daniel Agger has made Alvaro have to work harder for his place in the team.

International

Arbeloa continued his rise to fame after leaving the Real Madrid reserves with a call-up to the Spanish national side in March 2008. Having been selected for the Euro 2008 squad in Austria-Switzerland, Arbeloa played the first game against Greece, and was an important squad member as Spain ran out as victors, winning their first ever major tournament. Arbeloa is now a regular squad member.