Full name Enaut Zubikarai Goni Years Team Weight 83 kg Name Enaut Zubikarai Career start 2003 | Playing position Role Footballer Position Goalkeeper Current team Free agent Height 1.85 m | |
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Date of birth (1984-02-26) 26 February 1984 (age 31) Number 13 (Real Sociedad / Goalkeeper) | ||
Despiste del Portero Eñaut Zubikarai de la Real Sociedad
Entrenamiento de porteros: Claudio Bravo y Eñaut Zubikarai, profesores y ejemplos
Eñaut Zubikarai Goñi (born 26 February 1984) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for New Zealand club Auckland City FC as a goalkeeper.
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Football career
Born in Ondarroa, Biscay, Zubikarai joined Real Sociedad in 2003 at age 19, being assigned to the B-team in Segunda División B. For the 2005–06 season he was loaned to Basque neighbours SD Eibar, but appeared in only one game after suffering a shoulder injury (he suffered another after having returned to his parent club) and also suffered relegation from Segunda División, which triggered thoughts of an early retirement.
After Asier Riesgo moved to Recreativo de Huelva, Zubikarai was definitely promoted to the main squad but, after the former returned from his loan, both battled for second-choice status during the 2009–10 campaign. The latter contributed with 12 games as the Txuriurdin returned to La Liga, after a three-year absence.
Zubikarai made his debut in the top flight on 10 April 2012 at the age of 28, in a 1–1 home draw against Real Betis. He continued to act as understudy to Claudio Bravo for the duration of his spell, but was Real Sociedad's goalkeeper in the Copa del Rey, notably helping to a semifinal run in 2013–14.
After the Chilean's departure to FC Barcelona in the 2014 summer, Zubikarai became the starter. However, shortly after conceding four goals in an away fixture against Villarreal CF in December, he lost his position to Gerónimo Rulli.
Zubikarai was released by Real Sociedad on 30 June 2015, after the expiration of his contract. On 20 January of the following year, after several months without a club, he signed a five-month deal with C.D. Tondela from Portugal.
Personal life
In the summer of 2011, Hércules CF was on the verge of signing Zubikarai on loan, but pulled out officially on financial grounds, even though it reportedly feared public reaction to its signing of a player whose father, Cándido, was affiliated with terrorist organization ETA, being sentenced to thirty years in 1989 for the murder of two civil guards.