Alberto Rivera Pizarro

Alberto Rivera Pizarro (born 16 February 1978) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a central midfielder.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Rivera and the second or maternal family name is Pizarro.

Alberto Rivera
Personal information
Full name Alberto Rivera Pizarro
Date of birth (1978-02-16) 16 February 1978
Place of birth Puertollano, Spain
Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Playing position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
Real Madrid
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1995–1997 Real Madrid C 68 (15)
1995–2002 Real Madrid 3 (1)
1996–1999 Real Madrid B 84 (23)
1999–2000 → Numancia (loan) 29 (1)
2002 → Marseille (loan) 12 (2)
2002–2005 Levante 113 (17)
2005–2009 Betis 107 (2)
2009–2012 Sporting Gijón 93 (1)
2012–2014 Elche 51 (0)
Total 560 (62)
National team
1993–1994 Spain U16 14 (3)
1995–1996 Spain U18 13 (7)
1997 Spain U20 7 (2)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

He started out at Real Madrid, but played almost exclusively for its reserve teams during his spell. In a professional career that spanned nearly two decades, he went on to amass La Liga totals of 282 matches and ten goals over 12 seasons, also representing in the competition Numancia, Levante, Betis, Sporting de Gijón and Elche.

Club career

Real Madrid

Rivera was born in Puertollano, Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha. A product of Real Madrid's youth academy he made his first-team debut aged only 17 (his only appearance for the main squad during 1994–95), scoring in a 2–0 away win against RC Celta de Vigo with the La Liga title race already decided in their favour.[1] He started his senior career with the C-team in Segunda División B, playing two additional full seasons with Real Madrid Castilla in the same level and appearing in five Segunda División games with the latter.

Rivera signed with CD Numancia for 1999–2000, on a loan deal.[2] After helping the Soria side barely avoid top division relegation he returned to Real Madrid, where he was featured in two additional league matches in the following season; in January 2002 he had another loan spell, with Ligue 1's Olympique de Marseille to where he moved alongside Alfonso Pérez from FC Barcelona,[3] and appeared regularly for the French team until the end of the campaign, in an eventual ninth-place finish.

Levante / Betis

Rivera joined Levante UD in 2002, with the team in the second division. In three seasons he was an undisputed starter, netting a career-high 11 goals in 2003–04's promotion before moving on to Real Betis upon Levante's immediate relegation (having played in all the games but one, with five goals), for €3.4 million.[4]

Completely established in the top flight as a midfielder with skill and vision , Rivera played 34 league matches in 2005–06, with seven UEFA Champions League and three UEFA Cup additional appearances, without finding the net however. The following campaign he played 27 times, scoring his first Betis goal in a 2–3 defeat at Villarreal CF on 5 November 2006.[5]

Sporting

In mid-June 2009, after rejecting Betis' offer of a new deal, and with the Andalusians having been relegated, Rivera signed a one-year contract with fellow league club Sporting de Gijón – with the option for a further two – which had barely retained its division status, arriving on a free transfer and reuniting with former Levante boss Manolo Preciado.[6] After the end of his second season, he received the Fair Play Award given by the Professional Football League.[7]

Rivera appeared in an average of 31 games during his spell in Asturias, suffering top flight relegation in his third and final year. He retired in summer 2014 at the age of 36 after two seasons with Elche CF, the latter spent in the top tier.


Levante

Elche

References
  1. Un pasillo y muchos bostezos (Guard of honour and yawns aplenty); Mundo Deportivo, 11 June 1995 (in Spanish)
  2. "Breve enciclopedia numantina" [Brief numantina encyclopedia] (in Spanish). Desde Soria. 29 May 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2019.
  3. "El Barça cede a Alfonso al Marsella" [Barça loan Alfonso to Marseille] (in Spanish). ABC. 8 January 2002. Retrieved 2 October 2019.
  4. Rivera bought by Betis; UEFA, 30 June 2005
  5. Villarreal 3–2 Real Betis; ESPN Soccernet, 5 November 2006
  6. El Sporting cierra el fichaje del bético Alberto Rivera (Sporting complete signing of bético Alberto Rivera); Marca, 16 June 2009 (in Spanish)
  7. Rivera, premio al jugador más limpio (Rivera, fair play award) Archived 3 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine; El Comercio, 1 December 2011 (in Spanish)
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