Place of birth Madrid, Spain Years Team Height 1.87 m Position Midfielder | Playing position Team Apps Weight 75 kg | |
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Full name José Luis Pérez Caminero Date of birth (1967-11-08) 8 November 1967 (age 49) Similar Kiko, Julen Guerrero, Miguel Ángel Gil Marín, Diego Simeone, Arquimedes Caminero | ||
José Luis Pérez Caminero (born 8 November 1967) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a midfielder.
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Arguably one of the best Spanish footballers of the 1990s, Caminero was able to play in any midfield position, in the middle or in the wings. Having played in 408 La Liga games over the course of 14 seasons (57 goals), he possessed a vast array of skills: dribble, shot and physique, and his career was almost exclusively associated with Valladolid and Atlético Madrid.
Caminero represented Spain in one World Cup and one European Championship, scoring in both tournaments.
Club career
After unsuccessfully emerging through the ranks of Real Madrid, Madrid-born Caminero joined Real Valladolid for the 1989–90 season, helping the side barely avoid La Liga relegation. He scored his first goal in the competition in the following campaign, in a 3–1 home win against Valencia CF on 16 December 1990.
The peak of Caminero's career took place from 1993–94, when he moved to Atlético de Madrid. He was a key member of the squad that won an historical double in 1995–96, contributing with nine league goals in 37 games; accordingly, after the season, he was given the Spanish Footballer of the Year award by both the Madrid newspaper El País and the prestigious football magazine Don Balón, being the only Atlético player to win both awards during one season, and netted a career-best 14 goals in the following campaign.
After four seasons at Atlético Caminero re-joined Valladolid, where he ended his active playing career in 2004 after the team's top level relegation. In his final years, he further enhanced his versatility by playing in the sweeper position.
After his retirement, Caminero was installed as the team's director of football. He left the position citing personal reasons after 2007–08. In May 2011 he returned to Atlético, in the same predicament.
International career
Caminero made his Spanish national team debut on 8 September 1993, in a 2–0 friendly win with Chile in Alicante. He represented the country at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States, where he was the nation's leading scorer at three (scoring twice against Bolivia in a 3–1 group stage win) and also in UEFA Euro 1996 in England, where he netted a late equalizer against France.
Overall, Caminero scored eight goals in 21 caps, and his last appearance was against England in Euro '96, in a penalty shootout loss.
Arrest
In June 2009 Caminero was arrested for possible connections to drug traffic operations, with a further 30 people being taken into custody for interrogation. He was released upon the reading of his rights.
Caminero in popular culture
Caminero's football genius also made it to the silver screen. Spanish movie director Pedro Almodóvar included his dribbling against FC Barcelona's defender Miguel Ángel Nadal in his 1997 film Live Flesh (Carne trémula).