José Antonio Reyes

José Antonio Reyes

Personal information
Full name	José Antonio Reyes Calderón
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Forward, Left Winger
Team information
Current team	S.L. Benfica
Number	6
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of October 11, 2006

José Antonio Reyes Calderón (born September 1, 1983 in Utrera, Seville) is a Spanish footballer who plays for Portuguese club S.L. Benfica. He has previously played for Sevilla, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid, and is also a member of the Spanish national team.

Club career

Early career

Born in Utrera to Roma Gypsy parents, a town south-east of Seville, Reyes joined the youth ranks of Seville club Sevilla FC at the age of 10. His talent was identified, and he represented the club at all youth levels. He finally signed a full contract in 1999 at the age of 15. Reyes made his senior debut a year later as a substitute in a game against Real Zaragoza and was later called up to Spain's under-17 youth national team for the Under-17 European Championships.

Reyes established his reputation as a versatile forward, playing either as a left winger or a second striker. His 22 goals in 86 matches, over four seasons at Sevilla led to other clubs taking notice, but Reyes' popularity with the club's fans made a move to a bigger Spanish club politically difficult for Sevilla FC's club president.

Arsenal

Despite Sevilla manager Joaquín Caparrós wishing to hang onto him, Reyes signed with English club Arsenal F.C. during the January transfer window of the 2003-04 season. The £10.5m fee was negotiated with top ups, depending on the success of Arsenal, which could have risen to £17m.

He made his debut on February 1, 2004 in a 2-1 win over Manchester City. Two days later, he scored an own goal against Middlesbrough in the Carling Cup. Later that month, Reyes scored twice against Chelsea to knock them out of the FA Cup. He also scored against Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal, and his goals in the penultimate two games of the season helped keep Arsenal's unbeaten run in the FA Premier League going.

Hat tricks in friendlies during the summer 2004 showed his improvement and Reyes was a prominent influence on Arsenal's impressive start to the 2004-05 season, in which he managed to score in each of the first six games. However, Reyes struggled during the middle of the season after Arsenal's defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford. His inconsistent performance brought little reward for much of the season, and yet towards the end of it he scored three valuable goals.

In early 2005, he was reported to be homesick while at Arsenal, even though José's parents Mari and Francisco as well as brother Jesús lived with him in England. During a prank call perpetrated by COPE Radio of Spain in February 2005, a prankster claiming to be the president of Spanish club Real Madrid reportedly called Reyes' agent and spoke to Reyes himself about a possible transfer deal. In the ensuing conversation, Reyes allegedly declared that life in London was far from what he had envisioned and he would welcome a move back to his native Spain. Reyes also supposedly said that he wanted out of the club as there were "bad people" at Arsenal.

On May 21, 2005, Reyes became the only second player in history (after Kevin Moran) to be sent off in an FA Cup final, when he was dismissed for a second yellow card.

He temporarily ended speculation about a move away from Highbury in July 2005, when he signed a new six-year contract and declared that he was "looking forward to having many more successful years at the club."

In Arsenal's 2005-06 UEFA Champions League run, Reyes featured heavily against, among others, Real Madrid, Juventus F.C. and Villarreal CF, in the most impressive Champions League results for Arsenal to date. He came on as a substitute in the May 17, 2006 final against Spanish champions F.C. Barcelona, which Arsenal lost 2-1. However, in August 2006 he expressed a desire not to play in Arsenal's 2006-07 Champions League qualifying match against Dinamo Zagreb - to do so would render him 'cup-tied' and complicate a move to Real Madrid. Wenger left him out of the team, thus fuelling speculation that a transfer was soon to be agreed.

Real Madrid

Reyes was linked to Real Madrid along with Arsenal teammate Cesc Fàbregas in the summer of 2006, when the candidate Arturo Baldasano of the then on-going Real Madrid presidential campaign claimed he would sign them, if elected. Reyes further hinted towards a transfer to Real Madrid. After making two official statements on Arsenal's website denying media reports of being unhappy, alleged quotes from Reyes in the Spanish press contradicted his denials. This tested the patience of Arsène Wenger, who reacted angrily to Real Madrid's attempts to unsettle his player, suggesting that it was not the first time Real Madrid had used the media and agents in Spain as a destabilising tactic. Shortly before the closure of the 2006 summer transfer window, Madrid and Arsenal agreed to exchange Reyes for Brazilian international Júlio Baptista, each on a season-long loan deal.

Reyes scored his first goal for Real Madrid on September 17, 2006 with a free kick against Real Sociedad.

On the final day of the 2006-07 season, the focus was on David Beckham and Roberto Carlos in their final match for Real but Reyes, in the final game of his loan spell, came on as a substitute for the injured Beckham, scoring with his first touch and again later on. Real came back from a 1-0 deficit to win 3-1, claiming the La Liga title.

Real Madrid appointed former Getafe coach Bernd Schuster on July 8, 2007 increasing the chances that Reyes would sign a permanent deal and stay in Spain.

Atlético Madrid

However, reports surfacing on July 29 indicated that Madrid rivals Atlético Madrid were on the verge of landing the player. Later that day, Wenger confirmed that Reyes' departure was imminent, and that a more specific announcement would be made "shortly".

On July 30, Reyes passed his medical. He was unveiled on July 31 as an Atletico player for the next four years. It is believed Arsenal will receive €12m (£8.1m) for the transfer. Reyes made his debut for Atlético in a match against S.S. Lazio, in which he scored a goal and made an assist in a 3-1 victory in the annual Amsterdam Tournament. Reyes has had previous success in this pre-season tournament, being named player of the tournament in the 2004 Amsterdam Tournament while playing for Arsenal. Ironically, Arsenal were winners of the 2007 Amsterdam Tournament. He has had a disastrous 2007/08 campaign in Madrid, failing to score a single goal in 26 appearances. On August 8, Benfica announced the signing of Reyes on a one year loan deal. Benfica also bought 25% of his playing rights for a fee of €2.65m and ensured a buying option of the remainder 75% for an undisclosed fee.

Benfica

He was presented to the associates on August 8, 2008 and made his debut in a friendly match against Feyenoord. He replaced Urretavizcaya in the 79th minute and a minute afterwards, following a cross from Makukula he made a volley which hit the post. His debut goal on S.L. Benfica was scored against Sporting CP on September 28th, after an understanding between Reyes and Pablo Aimar, and a pass from the same, he scored an astounding goal. Later in the same week he would score again against S.S.C. Napoli, putting S.L. Benfica ahead in that year's UEFA Cup First Round.

Reyes made his transfer to Benfica permanent on 23 December.

International career

Reyes earned his first full cap in September 2003 against Portugal. However, he was left out of Iñaki Sáez's 2004 European Championship squad. Although Reyes has been picked consistently in national team squads, he has only 21 caps and 4 goals. He is not a regular starter, due to former national team coach Luis Aragonés' preference to play Fernando Torres and David Villa up front, with David Silva on the left. Most recently, Reyes played in the 2006 FIFA World Cup game against Saudi Arabia.

Club career statistics

(correct as of 10 December 2008)

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1999-00||rowspan="5"|Sevilla||La Liga||1||0||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||1||0 |- |2000-01||Segunda División||1||0||1||0||colspan="2"|-||2||0 |- |2001-02||rowspan="3"|La Liga||29||8||1||0||colspan="2"|-||30||8 |- |2002-03||34||9||3||2||colspan="2"|-||37||11 |- |2003-04||21||5||4||1||colspan="2"|-||25||6 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2003-04||rowspan="3"|Arsenal||rowspan="3"|Premier League||13||2||4||2||4||1||21||5 |- |2004-05||30||9||7||2||8||1||45||12 |- |2005-06||26||5||6||1||12||0||44||6 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2006-07||Real Madrid||La Liga||30||6||2||0||4||1||36||7 |- |2007-08||rowspan="1"|Atlético Madrid||rowspan="1"|La Liga||26||0||colspan="2"|-||2||0||28||0 |- Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2008-09||Benfica||Portuguese Liga||10||2||1||0||5||1||14||3 Template:Football player statistics 3116||28||11||3||4||1||131||32 Template:Football player statistics 469||16||17||5||24||2||110||23 Template:Football player statistics 48||2||1||0||5||1||14||3 Template:Football player statistics 5193||46||29||8||33||3||255||58 |}

Honours

Sevilla

• Segunda División 2000-01

Arsenal

• FA Premier League 2003-04
• FA Cup 2005
• FA Community Shield: 2004–05
• UEFA Champions League runner-up 2005-06

Real Madrid

• La Liga 2006-2007

External links

• José Antonio Reyes – FIFA competition record (archived)
• José Antonio Reyes at Soccerbase
• FootballDatabase profile and statistics
• 4thegame.com profile