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Date of Birth: Monday, May 16, 1977
Birth Place: Spain
Height: 190cm
Position: Goalkeeper
Former Clubs/Teams: Albacete Balompié, Recreativo Huelva, SD Eibar, Celta de Vigo

Biography

Manuel Almunia is a goalkeeper for Arsenal in the English Premier League. His tenacity, loyalty and patience have seen him slowly work his way up to the top of the game, although his good work has yet to be recognised by the Spanish national side – prompting calls for him to take his English citizenship and play for England. He is a solid and reliable goalie.

Childhood

Manuel Almunia was born on 19th May 1977 in Pamplona, Spain. Manuel played for various youth teams, and made best-use of his height by becoming a goalkeeper. He was always agile and performed well, but he lacked some of the showmanship and sparkle that big clubs in Spain were looking for. He joined the youth academy system relatively late at 18 years old.

Early Career

Almunia began his career in the Osasuna reserves. Whilst he impressed for these, he was never given his chance in the first team, and was allowed to leave once his contract was up. A solid year at Sabadell in Spain's lower leagues won him a contract with Celta Vigo, but this led merely to another two seasons in the lower leagues, on loan at Eibar and Recreativo, before he was given his first chance in the Primera Liga on loan at Albacete.

He made his Primera debut in November 2003, aged 26, and helped Albacete to a justified 14th spot.

Current Club

Arsene Wenger obviously saw something in the Spaniard to offer around £1m to Celta Vigo for his services – with Wenger looking for a dependable number two following Shabaan’s departure and Richard Wright’s failures between the sticks.

Almunia arrived in London on July 14th 2004, and took over the substitute goalkeeper position behind Jens Lehmann. Manuel was an adequate substitute when called upon, and was part of the Carling Cup team.

After three years at the club, Almunia started to stake a claim for the first-team spot, not least because Jens Lehmann had started to become erratic – making costly errors for the Gunners. He played the latter half of 07/08, and became the first-choice goalie when Lehmann moved back to Germany.

International

Manuel Almunia has yet to be capped for Spain, and is unlikely to be given an international appearance, given the dominance of Iker Casillas and Cesar, who are both younger than him. The third goalkeeper spot tends to go to a young up and coming goalie. Almunia has not written off all hope, insisting that he would love to play if called up, but failing that would love to play for England.