Antonio "Toni" Velamazán Tejedor (born 22 January 1977) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.
He spent most of his career with Espanyol, appearing in 141 competitive games over seven La Liga seasons and scoring 19 goals. He started out at Barcelona.La previa del Espanyol-Almería (Espanyol-Almería preview); RCD Espanyol, 18 December 2020 (in Spanish)
Club career Born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Velamazán was a youth graduate of FC Barcelona. He made 11 appearances for the first team during the 1995–96 season, under Johan Cruyff, but could never establish himself in the main squad,El último Barça que imaginó Cruyff (The last Barça that Cruyff envisioned); En Un Momento Dado, 6 January 2015 (in Spanish)La Quinta del Mini (The Mini's Cohort); FC Barcelona, 15 June 2020 (in Spanish) going on to have one-year spells with Real Oviedo, Albacete Balompié and CF Extremadura.La mili en Oviedo de Velamazán (Velamazán's Oviedo army spell); Diario AS, 25 September 2020 (in Spanish)
Velamazán would subsequently settle at Barça neighbours RCD Espanyol, where he spent six and a half years although he started regularly in only two. His best individual season was 1999–2000, as the player scored six goals in 34 La Liga matches and the club also won the Copa del Rey,El Espanyol se corona en Mestalla (Espanyol crowned at Mestalla); El País, 28 May 2000 (in Spanish) only ranking 14th in the domestic league however; he suffered a knee injury on 6 January 2002 against Málaga CF from which he never fully recovered, and left the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in January 2006.Del calvario a la luz (Brightness follows ordeal); El País, 28 July 2002 (in Spanish)Toni Velamazán deja el Espanyol sin rencor (Toni Velamazán leaves Espanyol holding no grudges); Sport, 17 January 2006 (in Spanish)
Shortly after, Velamazán returned to Segunda División by signing a one-year contract with UD Almería, following which he returned to his native region, joining lowly CE L'Hospitalet and remaining there until his retirement at the end of the 2010–11 campaign, aged 34.Toni Velamazán, un ilustre en las filas del CE Hospitalet (Toni Velamazán, celebrity in the ranks of CE Hospitalet); La Verdad, 8 May 2008 (in Spanish)Toni Velamazán penjarà les botes aquest estiu (Toni Velamazán to hang up boots this summer); Ara, 14 August 2011 (in Catalan)
International career Velamazán started all six matches (although only one complete) at the 2000 Summer Olympics, scoring once as the Spanish team finished second.Corea del Sur pierde ante España 3 a 0 (South Korea lose against Spain 3 to 0); La Nación, 14 September 2000 (in Spanish)España cae tras un esfuerzo épico (Spain fall following epic effort); El País, 1 October 2000 (in Spanish)
Honours Espanyol Copa del Rey: 1999–2000
Spain U23 Summer Olympic silver medal: 2000
References
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