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Alvaro Arbeloa
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Position: Defender
Date of Birth: 17/01/1983
Height: 6'0
Weight: 12st
1st team games: 55
1st team goals: 1
International caps: 3
International goals: 0
Former clubs: Real Madrid, Deportivo La Coruna
Birth Place: Salamanca, Spain
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Alvaro Arbeloa arrived at Liverpool in January 2007 for a reported £2.5m fee.
The Spaniard had started out in Real Zaragoza’s youth system before being snapped up by Real Madrid aged 16. It was at Madrid that he first worked with Rafa Benitez, who was then a youth coach at the Bernabeu. He made his Madrid debut against Real Betis in October 2004, but managed just one more appearance in two further years at the club. By July 2006, he had decided he would have to move on to get first team football, and a transfer to Deportivo La Coruna was agreed.
After just six months at Deportivo though, Rafa Benitez moved to bring him to Anfield, and Arbeloa was unveiled as a Liverpool player on January 31st 2007.
The defender, who has represented Spain at every level, made his debut as a substitute against Newcastle on February 10th, but his first real test was to come 11 days later. In a move that shocked many Arbeloa was deployed at left back in a Champions League game against Barcelona, handed the task of containing Argentine starlet Lionel Messi. It proved a tactical masterstroke on the part of Benitez as Arbeloa carried out his job with aplomb, marking Messi out of the game and helping Liverpool return home with a 2-1 lead. The same tactic was used in the second leg, again working perfectly, and Liverpool were through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Arbeloa made 14 appearances in his debut season at Anfield, managing to get on the scoresheet with a well taken finish against Reading and also coming on as a late substitute in the Champions League final.
Arbeloa's Liverpool form brought international recognition when Luis Aragones named him in the Spanish squad for the first time. In March 2008 when he came on with 15 minutes to go in a friendly victory over world champions Italy. Three months later he was part of the squad which triumphed in Euro 2008, although he only started one group game against Greece.
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