Full name Urbano Ortega Cuadros 1979–1982 Espanol Position Midfielder Years Team Height 1.83 m | Playing position Role Footballer Name Urbano Ortega | |
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Date of birth (1961-12-22) 22 December 1961 (age 54) | ||
Place of birth Beas de Segura, Spain | ||
Urbano Ortega Cuadros (born 22 December 1961), known simply as Urbano, is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a midfielder.
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Over the course of 16 La Liga seasons (17 during his career) he amassed totals of 301 games and 16 goals, mainly for Espanyol and Barcelona.
Club career
Urbano was born in Beas de Segura, Province of Jaén. After starting out with RCD Español he moved in 1982 to Catalonia neighbours FC Barcelona; with the latter he only started in two of his nine seasons, being sparingly used as a backup (just 41 La Liga matches combined in the remaining years).
Subsequently, Urbano returned to Español for two more seasons, with top flight relegation in the latter. He closed out his professional career in 1996, after playing with modest UE Lleida (one year) and CP Mérida (two), with two additional campaigns in the main division, one with each team.
Urbano began coaching in 2003, assisting former Barça teammate Esteban Vigo at numerous clubs, including Romania's FC Dinamo Bucureşti. His first head coach experience arrived in 2007–08 in Segunda División B, with CD Baza: he resigned in June 2008, as the team dropped down a level.
After working as a scout for Barcelona and Villarreal CF, Urbano returned to another former side, Espanyol (as they were now known), in July 2009, as a club delegate.
International career
Urbano never earned a senior cap for Spain, but was a regular for its under-21 team, also competing at the 1980 Summer Olympics.