Zapater Alberto is a Spanish footballer currently playing for his home club Zaragoza. He was remembered by Russian fans for his games for the Moscow Lokomotiv. To date, the player is 31 years old, but at the same time Zapater Alberto has just restored his career after a two-year break. What caused such a timeout in the career of a defensive midfielder who can also act as a right-back?
Carier start
Zapater Alberto was born on June 13, 1985 in Spain, where at a very young age he joined the football academy of the amateur club Ehea, named after his hometown. There, the athlete practiced until 1997, then he was able to go through the show in a small professional club from the second division. This club was Zaragoza, with which the guy linked his early footballing years.
In 2003, when the athlete was eighteen years old, he signed a professional contract with Zaragoza, but spent his first season in a double. However, already in 2004, Zapater Alberto was called up to the main team and became a player in the starting lineup. Then he entered the field in 42 matches, scoring two goals.
However, Zapater’s talent was not particularly outstanding, so the top clubs did not start hunting for him. Alberto calmly grew and developed, defending the colors of his native team. This went on for five years, during which the player played in 207 matches and scored six goals.
Alberto is currently the second Zaragoza footballer after Leonardo Ponzio in terms of the number of matches played for the club. But in the summer of 2009, the Italian club Genoa showed interest in the 24-year-old Spaniard, who paid four and a half million euros for the player.
Going to Genoa
In “Genoa” Zapater spent a rather strong season, having entered the field 36 times and scoring four goals. However, his game, which seemed impressive in Zaragoza, in Genoa was no longer so pleasing. Therefore, in the summer of 2010, Alberto was again sold this time to the Portuguese Sporting, which paid for the player only two million euros.
Game for Sporting
But in “Sporting” the Spanish footballer did not stay long: his contract was designed for only one year with the possibility of further extension. Zapater played in 34 matches and scored four goals, but did not impress the management with this, so in the summer of 2011 he was left without work. However, in just a month, Alberto was able to find a new club, which became FC Lokomotiv (Moscow).
Relocation to Russia
The transition to Lokomotiv looked promising, but in reality it didn’t turn out that way. For three years in a Russian club, the Spaniard entered the field 38 times due to the fact that he was constantly injured and could not recover from his injuries. As a result, in the 13/14 season, a football player entered the field only once. Then in the summer he announced that he was temporarily stopping his football career in order to try to fully recover. So the Lokomotiv midfielder Alberto Zapater moved away from football for two years.
Return to football
In the summer of 2016, Zapater announced that he was returning to football, as he managed to cope with his injuries. The athlete also announced that he had signed a two-year contract with his home club Zaragoza. And it looks as if the Spaniard actually coped with his problems. This season, he entered the field in ten matches, giving one assists. And on September 25, Sapater led the team with the captain's armband for the match with Numansia . So the footballer returned to his home club. Now he has a real opportunity to break the record of Leonardo Ponzio and become the player who spent the most matches in history for Zaragoza.
Team appearances
Over the course of his career, Zapater was never called to the Spanish national team: he did not have enough high-level performances. But the athlete has nine matches for the youth team of Spain under 21 years old.