IVáN DE LA PEñA

'Iván De la Peña López' (born Santander, Cantabria, May 6 1976), is a Spanish footballer who currently plays for RCD Espanyol. He has previously played for FC Barcelona, Lazio, Olympique de Marseille and Spain. De la Peña has earned the nicknames ''Little Buddha'' and ''Lo Pelat'' (''The Shaven One'') due to his shaven head and slight frame. He is known for his pin-point accurate passing and crossing. He is also a free kick specialist.

Contents

FC Barcelona

Lazio

RCD Espanyol

International Career

Honours

External links

FC Barcelona

De la Peña was recruited by FC Barcelona as youth in 1991 and made his debut for FC Barcelona B in 1993. He went on to play 37 games for the reserve team. Johan Cruyff gave him his debut with the senior FC Barcelona team in 1995. He came on as a substitute and scored in a 2-0 win over Real Valladolid. At 19 he was initially regarded as the natural successor to Josep Guardiola. However, he fell out of favour with Cruyff and found himself dropped. With the arrival of Bobby Robson in 1996, he was given a second chance to establish himself in the team. De la Peña subsequently developed a partnership with Ronaldo and was a prominent member of the team that won the Copa del Rey/European Cup Winners Cup/European Supercup treble in 1997. He was also voted the best young player by ''El País'' in both 1996 and 1997.

Lazio

De la Peña found himself out of favour at FC Barcelona once again after the arrival of Louis Van Gaal and he was consequently transferred to Lazio. However he failed to establish himself in Serie A and was loaned to Olympique de Marseille during the 1999-00 season. This move was not successful either and he returned to FC Barcelona on loan in 2000. However he again failed to gain a regular place under Llorenç Serra Ferrer and went back to Lazio.

RCD Espanyol

In 2002 De la Peña moved to RCD Espanyol where he found the continuity and stability to produce some of the best football in his career. In 2005 he helped RCD Espanyol finish 5th in La Liga, enabling them to qualify for the UEFA Cup. In the 2006 Copa del Rey final De la Peña masterminded a 4-1 victory for RCD Espanyol against Real Zaragoza by setting up two goals. Raúl Tamudo scored after two minutes when he headed in a rebound following a De la Peña free kick. Tamudo and De la Peña combined again to carve open the Real Zaragoza defence to lay on a goal for Luis García. As a result RCD Espanyol qualified for the UEFA Cup and reached the final where they lost to Sevilla FC on penalties.

International Career

De la Peña, along with Fernando Morientes, Raúl and Gaizka Mendieta, played for Spain U-21s at both the 1996 European U-21 Championship and at the 1996 Olympic Games. Despite this he did not make his debut for the senior Spain team until 2005 at the age of 28. He has subsequently played for Spain on five occasions.

Honours

'FC Barcelona'

★ 'European Cup Winners Cup: 1'

★
★ 1997

★ 'European Super Cup: 1'

★
★ 1997

★ 'Copa del Rey': '1'

★
★ 1997

★ 'Spanish Champions: 1'

★
★ 1997-98

★ 'Supercopa de España': '1'

★
★ 1996
'RCD Espanyol'

★ 'Copa del Rey': '1'

★
★ 2006

★ 'UEFA Cup':

★
★ ''Runners Up'' 2007 '1'
'S.S. Lazio'

★ 'European Cup Winners Cup: 1'

★
★ 1999
'Spain U-21s'

★ '1996 European U-21 Championship'

★
★ ''Runners Up'' 1996 '1'

External links

★ Spain stats

★

★ Spanish football awards

★ The lost boys of Barcelona, by Ronald Atkin