Borja Viguera Manzanares (born 26 March 1987) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a striker.

He achieved totals of 51 games and three goals in La Liga for Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao and Sporting de Gijón. He also made 100 Segunda División appearances and scored 28 goals for five clubs, finishing as top scorer for the 2013–14 season for Alavés.

Career Real Sociedad Born in Logroño, La Rioja, Viguera graduated from Real Sociedad's prolific youth setup, and made his senior debut with the reserves in 2006–07, in the Segunda División B. He played his first match as a professional on 15 September 2007, coming on as a substitute for Iñigo Díaz de Cerio in a 3–2 Segunda División away win against UD Las Palmas.La Real Sociedad vence a las Palmas en un mal partido (Real Sociedad defeat Las Palmas in a poor match); Marca, 15 September 2007 (in Spanish) He made a further four appearances with the main squad during the following season, as they missed out on promotion by finishing fourth.

Viguera was promoted officially to Real's first team in June 2009,Suben Sarasola, Esnaola y Viguera (Sarasola, Esnaola and Viguera promoted); El Diario Vasco, 4 June 2009 (in Spanish) but featured rarely as the Basques were crowned champions. On 11 January 2011, he joined Gimnàstic de Tarragona on loan until June,El Nàstic se refuerza con Borja Viguera y Álex Bergantiños (Nàstic bolster with Borja Viguera and Álex Bergantiños) ; Sport, 11 January 2011 (in Spanish) suffering a knee injury the following month that ruled him out for the remainder of the campaign.Borja Viguera se lesiona de gravedad (Borja Viguera seriously injured); Gimnàstic Tarragona, 14 February 2011 (in Spanish)

On 26 August 2011, Viguera returned to Nàstic again in a temporary deal.Borja Viguera llega cedido hasta final de temporada (Borja Viguera arrives on loan until the end of the season); Gimnàstic Tarragona, 26 August 2011 (in Spanish) After being sparingly used by the Catalans he returned to Real Sociedad on 31 January 2012,Borja Viguera termina la cesión en el Nàstic (Borja Viguera finishes loan in Nàstic); Gimnàstic Tarragona, 31 January 2012 (in Spanish) and was subsequently loaned to Albacete Balompié of the third tier.Comunicado oficial: Viguera, cedido al Albacete Balompié (Official announcement: Viguera, loaned to Albacete Balompié); Real Sociedad, 31 January 2012 (in Spanish)

Alavés On 6 July 2012, having been offered a new contract with Real Sociedad but facing another loan to one of their partner clubs in Gipuzkoa, Viguera instead joined neighbouring Deportivo Alavés, also in the third division.El Alavés ficha al primer delantero, Borja Viguera (Alavés sign the first forward, Borja Viguera); El Correo, 6 July 2012 (in Spanish) He was ever-present in his first year, scoring 21 goals in all competitions to help his team to achieve promotion to the second tier in the play-offs.Objeto de deseo (Object of desire); La Rioja, 9 December 2013 (in Spanish)

Viguera extended his contract with the Vitoria-Gasteiz club on 14 August 2013, until 2015.Borja Viguera: “Estoy muy feliz en Vitoria” (Borja Viguera: "I am very happy in Vitoria") ; Deportivo Alavés, 14 August 2013 (in Spanish) He netted 25 times during the season, as the side narrowly avoided relegation;La marca que le 'impone' Herrera a Viguera (The mark Herrera 'demands' of Viguera); El Desmarque, 20 July 2017 (in Spanish) highlights included a hat-trick at CE Sabadell FC on 8 February 2014 in a 4–0 victory.Gran victoria albiazul en Sabadell (0–4) (Great white-and-blue win in Sabadell (0–4)) ; Deportivo Alavés, 8 February 2014 (in Spanish)

Athletic Bilbao

On 13 June 2014, Viguera signed a three-year deal with Athletic Bilbao for €1 million.Borja Viguera ficha por el Athletic (Borja Viguera signs for Athletic); Mundo Deportivo, 13 June 2014 (in Spanish) Though not born in the Basque Country, learning his footballing skills at Real Sociedad meant he was considered eligible to play for Athletic under their signing policy. Mainly a backup option for Aritz Aduriz and the emrging Iñaki Williams during his time there, he scored his first La Liga goal for his new team on 21 November, the second of a 3–1 home win over RCD Espanyol,Athletic impress in Espanyol win; ESPN FC, 21 November 2014 and made ten European appearances in two campaigns, though was not selected for the squads for the 2015 Copa del Rey final or either leg of the 2015 Supercopa de España.

Sporting Gijón Viguera agreed to a two-year contract at Sporting de Gijón on 30 August 2016Borja Viguera se incorpora al Sporting (Borja Viguera added to Sporting) ; Sporting Gijón, 30 August 2016 (in Spanish) (he had scored Athletic's consolation goal in a 2–1 loss against Sporting at El Molinón a week earlier). He scored just once in the league during his first season, which ended in relegation from La Liga, and featured even less in the following campaign.Resumen Sporting de Gijón 2016/17: Viguera, el delantero perdido (Sporting de Gijón 2016/17 summary: Viguera, the lost forward); Vavel, 7 June 2017 (in Spanish)Borja Viguera: “Me da pena que no se haya visto al Borja con continuidad” (Borja Viguera: "It hurts that people did not see a consistent Borja"); Vavel, 30 June 2018 (in Spanish)

Numancia On 1 August 2018, free agent Viguera signed a two-year contract with CD Numancia.Otro delantero del Athletic de Champions para el Numancia (Another Athletic Champions forward to Numancia); Mundo Deportivo, 2 August 2018 (in Spanish) He played 24 total games (five starts) and scored once, a late penalty that was the only goal of the game at home to Real Zaragoza on 13 October. Viguera cut ties with the club on 4 September 2019.

Later career Viguera joined third-tier Real Unión on 22 January 2020. On 31 August the following year, he moved to CF Intercity in the new Segunda División RFEF. He was used mainly off the bench for the eventually promoted team from Sant Joan d'Alacant, including on 9 January 2022 when he scored his only goal to earn a 1–1 home draw against CF La Nucía.

In a September 2023 interview, he stated that he had hung up his boots 'two years ago', and had since undertaken training courses to become a sporting director and taken on a role at Zubieta, Real Sociedad's training centre and youth academy.

Personal life His father Santiago Viguera was also a footballer and a forward who developed in the 1970s at Real Sociedad, where he played over 100 times for the reserves in the fourth tier but progressed no further, then made a further century of appearances for hometown side CD Logroñés in the third level.Santiago Viguera Fernández, BDFutbol

Career statistics

+ Appearances and goals by club, season and competitionClubSeasonLeagueNational cupContinentalOtherTotalDivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsReal Sociedad B2006–07Segunda División B3810———38102007–08319———3192008–09226———226Total91250000009125Real Sociedad2007–08Segunda División3000——302008–092000——202009–104000——402010–11La Liga5020——70Total140200000160Gimnàstic (loan)2010–11Segunda División5200——522011–1210010——110Total152100000162Albacete (loan)2011–12Segunda División B9100—10101Alavés2012–13Segunda División B331353—4542212013–14Segunda División422521——4426Total75387400458647Athletic Bilbao2014–15La Liga20142 40—2832015–16901060—1602016–171100——11Total3025210000454Sporting Gijón2016–17La Liga16121——1822017–18Segunda División11010——120Total271310000302Numancia2018–19Segunda División23110——2412019–200000——00Total231100000241Real Unión2019–20Segunda División B7000——702020–2124400——244Total314000000314Career total315741971005534986

Honours Real Sociedad Segunda División: 2009–10

Alavés Segunda División B: 2012–13

Individual Segunda División top scorer: 2013–14 Segunda División Player of the Month: November 2013

References

External links