Francisco José 'Tati' Maldonado Collante (born 2 June 1981) is a Spanish former footballer who played as a forward.
Club career Maldonado, a product of Real Betis's youth system, was born in San Fernando, Cádiz, and played for the Andalusia club four seasons, making his La Liga debut on 8 February 2003 by featuring 15 minutes in a 1–4 away loss against Real Madrid.; ABC, 10 August 2003 (in Spanish) He would only appear in four games in two seasons combined before moving to AD Ceuta and then Lorca Deportiva CF,Baños: "A Unai Emery lo tengo ya renovado en un 99,9 %" (Baños: "Unai Emery is 99,9 % renewed"); La Verdad, 31 March 2006 (in Spanish) completing successful loan spells.'Tati' Maldonado salió ayer por segunda vez como titular y ya lleva marcados cuatro goles ('Tati' Maldonado started for the second time yesterday and has already scored four goals); La Verdad, 30 January 2006 (in Spanish)
During the summer of 2006, Betis re-signed Maldonado from Lorca for €62,000. He impressed during the summer friendlies, and was given a starting place against Valencia CF in a 1–2 away loss for the season opener, as a right winger in the absence of Joaquín.
Following a promising start – with another four matches in the starting XI – that included an assist against Athletic Bilbao in a 3–0 home win,El Betis golea ante un Athletic inofensivo (Betis rout harmless Athletic); El Mundo, 10 September 2006 (in Spanish) Maldonado found himself out of favour with newly appointed coach Luis Fernández, and finished the campaign with 15 appearances, going scoreless in the process.
In 2007–08, Maldonado was again loaned, to second division club Gimnàstic de Tarragona. At the end of the season he joined promoted Sporting de Gijón, on a three-year deal;El Sporting presenta a Maldonado (Sporting present Maldonado); Marca, 1 August 2008 (in Spanish) on 21 December 2008 he netted his first goal for the Asturians, in a 1–0 home win over UD Almería,Sporting Gijon 1–0 Almeria; ESPN Soccernet, 21 December 2008 with his team narrowly avoiding top flight relegation.
After a poor second season individually, Maldonado left for FC Cartagena in the second level. He continued competing in the category in the following years with Xerez CD, being relegated in 2013.
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