Full name Jesus Capitan Prada Playing position Height 1.82 m Current team Betis B (assistant) Position Midfielder | Name Capitan Prada Years Team Place of birth Camas, Spain Role Footballer | |
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Date of birth (1977-03-26) 26 March 1977 (age 38) Number 14 (Xerez CD / Midfielder) Similar People Juan Merino, Arzu, Melli, Toni Doblas, Pablo Alfaro Armengot | ||
Jesús Capitán Prada (born 26 March 1977), known as Capi, is a Spanish retired footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.
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He played most of his professional career with Betis, which included 209 La Liga games and 16 goals over the course of nine seasons (13 overall).
Club career
Capi was born in Camas, Seville, Andalusia. Apart from a loan spell at Granada CF in the third division, Capi spent the vast majority of his career at Real Betis. Previously, he appeared nearly 150 times with the club's B-side, and made his first-team – and La Liga – debut against Valencia CF on 26 May 1997, one of only two during the 1996–97 season.
Capi went to play over 250 league games for Betis, always as an important part of the squad. He scored his first goal for the club on 19 November 2000, albeit in a 1–3 home defeat against neighbouring Sevilla FC, as the campaign in Segunda División ended in promotion for both clubs in the city; however, in the 2004–05 season, as the team achieved a fourth place in the league, with qualification to the UEFA Champions League, he appeared in only 11 matches, mainly due to injuries.
After another two-and-a-half-month spell in the sidelines, Capi returned to action on 4 April 2009, netting as a second-half substitute in a 3–3 home draw against CD Numancia. Betis were eventually relegated to division two.
Capi continued to be bothered with injuries in 2009–10, but still played 25 games (only three complete) as the club failed to regain their lost status. On 19 June 2010, the 33-year-old appeared in his last game as a Verdiblanco, the useless 4–0 home win against Levante UD (Betis finished in fourth place, tied with both the second and third-placed teams), his contract expiring and not being renewed.
In the 2012 summer, after a couple of second division seasons with another side in his native region, Xerez CD, Capi signed with amateurs Camas Club de Fútbol, his first-ever club as a footballer. He retired in 2014 at age 37, being immediately appointed as Juan Merino's assistant manager at Betis B.
International career
Capi earned four caps for the Spain national team, making his debut on 27 March 2002 against the Netherlands, in a friendly match played in Rotterdam (0–1 loss). He featured in a further three internationals, all during that year.