Nahikari García

Nahikari García
Personal information
Full name Nahikari García Pérez
Date of birth (1997-03-10) 10 March 1997
Place of birth Urnieta, Gipuzkoa, Spain[1]
Height 1.59 m (5 ft 3 in)[2]
Playing position Forward
Club information
Current team
 Real Sociedad
Number 7[2]
Youth career
2007–2012 Añorga KKE
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2012–2014 Añorga KKE
2014– Real Sociedad
National team
2012–2014 Spain U17 21 (16)
2014–2016 Spain U19 26 (19)
2016– Spain U20 4 (1)
2015– Basque Country 2 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is García and the second or maternal family name is Pérez.

Nahikari García (born 10 March 1997) is a Spanish football forward currently playing for Real Sociedad in the Spanish 1st Division. She is also the current captain of the Spain women's national under-19 football team.

Club career

Early career

García started playing football at the age of nine in San Sebastián when she joined a sports programme with local side Urnieta.[3] The programme wasn't solely football based, however, which prompted to her to later leave to sign for Añorga KKE with whom she spent seven years plying her trade.[3][4]

Real Sociedad

In the 2014–15 winter transfer market Real Sociedad completed the signing of García, who was only sixteen at the time, from Añorga.[5] On 5 January, just days after signing for Sociedad, she was handed her Primera División debut by manager Unai Gazpio against Levante.[6][7] She ended the campaign with 10 goals to her name for the season.

In the following season García recorded a record-breaking tally of 15 goals for the season, the most ever in a single season by a Real Sociedad player.[3] Her seasonal haul included a notable goal against rivals Athletic and a hat-trick against Levante during December[8] which propelled Txuri-urdin to a fifth-placed finish in the Primera División, the club's highest placing since formation in 2004.[9] Real Sociedad also made the quarter-finals of the Copa de la Reina where they were eliminated 5–1 by eventual runners-up Barcelona, with García netting the only goal of the match for her club.[10] García's form throughout the season saw her nominated for the Primera División forward of the Season award.[11]

Early in September 2016, García appeared alongside Charlyn Corral, Alexia Putellas, Iraia Iturregi and Amanda Sampedro in a video promoting the buildup to the 2016–17 season.[12]

International career

García has worn the number 7 jersey for both club and country during the course of her short career. She credits former Real Madrid and Spain men's captain Raúl for her decision to wear the number, citing his style of play and on-field mentality as motivation in her own game.[3]

Spain national youth teams

García's first exposure to the Spanish youth teams came when she was just fifteen-years old when she was called up to replace a player who was unable to travel with the U17 team.[7]

In 2013 García, while representing Spain's U17 side, was awarded the Golden Boot award at the 2013 UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship, ending the tournament as the top goalscorer and only player to have scored more than once.[13] Spain were ultimately eliminated by Sweden in the semi-finals but ended the tournament in third after beating Belgium in the third place playoff. She was again part of the squad for the 2014 edition of the tournament where Spain went one step further, this time ending as runners-up to Germany.[14][15] It was the second time in the same year that Spain had ended a major competition as runners-up, having lost to Japan in the final of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in April.[16]

In July 2016 García, who was Real Sociedad's only representative in the squad,[17] captained Spain to a silver medal at the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship, losing 2–1 in the final to hosts France. She had two opportunities to draw Spain level but found herself the victim of a waterlogged pitch, missing a penalty in the opening half before skying a near-open goal opportunity in injury-time as a result of the on-field conditions.[18] The match was suspended for over two hours after half-time due to the weather conditions and upon the players' return to the pitch certain sections of the field were entirely waterlogged.[19] García was ridiculed by large sections of the media for the miss but received overwhelming support from her fan-base, prompting her to take to Instagram following the tournament to thank those who stood behind her and the team.[20] The showpiece match was her fourth appearance in a continental final, having previously ended as runner-up in the tournament's previous edition and as well as in the UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship in 2013 and 2014.[21] The unenviable record is one which she shares with teammates Andrea Sánchez Falcón and Naria Garrote.[21]

Later that year, García was selected as one of the captains for the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup to be held in Papua New Guinea.[22] She made her debut on 13 November in Spain's opening match of the tournament, a 5-0 victory over Canada.[23] García scored her first and only goal for the tournament on 24 November in a 3-2 loss to South Korea that saw Spain eliminated in the quarter-finals.[24]

Honours

International[25]

Individual

Sponsorships

García is currently sponsored by Spanish sportswear manufacturer Joma.[26]

Personal life

García's first name, Nahikari, derives from her Basque origin and represents the values of nobility, loyalty and intelligence.[27] Aside from football, she is also currently studying towards a degree in medicine and completed her first course in 2016. In an interview with AS in the same year she explained that while it was "a little crazy" to combine her degree with football, she felt that football helped her with her studies and vice versa.[28]

Superstition

García is fastidious when it comes to pre-match rituals. She plays with the same tape, wears two pairs of socks and always enters the field of play with her right foot first.[29]

References

  1. ↑ "Nahikari García: "La dinámica era muy negativa, necesitábamos un cambio"". La Liga (in Spanish). 28 December 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  2. 1 2 "Nahikari García Pérez". La Liga. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Hall, Andy (13 May 2016). "Real Sociedad's Nahikari García gearing up for vintage year". AS. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  4. ↑ de la Casa, Javier (15 January 2014). "La nueva perla de la Real Sociedad: Nahikari García". Marca (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  5. ↑ Menayo, David (4 January 2014). "La Real Sociedad ficha a Nahikari García". Marca (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  6. ↑ "Nahikari Garcia, participante en la Donosti Cup, debuta con 16 años en 1ª División". Donosti Cup (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  7. 1 2 Ramon, Javier (3 September 2015). "Nahikari: "Un título con la Real sería muy especial"". El Rincon de la Real (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  8. ↑ Badallo, Oscar (2 December 2015. "Agirretxe y Nahikari García, goles en txuriurdin". Marca (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  9. ↑ Rodriguez, N. (2 August 2016). "El objetivo es mejorar". Noticas de Gipuzkia (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  10. ↑ "Real Sociedad v FC Barcelona: Through to the semifinals (1–5)". FC Barcelona. 17 June 2016. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  11. ↑ "Vota a la mejor atacante de la temporada 2015/16 de la Primera División Femenina". La Liga (in Spanish). 23 June 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  12. ↑ "Charlyn Corral apareció en video promocional de La Liga". ESPN (in Spanish). 6 September 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  13. ↑ "García takes prize, Miedema sets record". UEFA. 28 June 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  14. ↑ Hart, Simon (19 August 2014). "2013/14: Andrea Sánchez". UEFA. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  15. ↑ "Nahikari García". Instagram (in Spanish). 3 August 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  16. ↑ "Spain bow to Japan in U17 world final". UEFA. 5 April 2014. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  17. ↑ Estala, Iker (20 July 2016). "Nahikari García tumba a Alemania". Vavel (in Spanish). Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  18. ↑ Offord, Jen (31 July 2016). "Nahikari Garcia double-miss hands France Women's Euro U19 trophy in water-logged final". Eurosport. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  19. ↑ "France – Spain final re-starts after two hour rain delay". AS. 31 July 2016. Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  20. ↑ "Nahikari Garcia agradece las muestras de apoyo vía Instagram". Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 3 August 2016. Retrieved 5 August 2016.
  21. 1 2 Saffer, Paul (30 July 2016). "Nahikari García's Spain lowdown". UEFA. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  22. ↑ "Nahikari: "Es gibt nichts Schöneres als ein Finale"". FIFA (in German). 28 September 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.
  23. ↑ "Canada falls 5-0 to Spain in FIFA women's under-20 World Cup". Globe and Mail. 13 November 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  24. ↑ "Nahikari García y Mariasun Quiñones, eliminadas del Mundial Sub-20". Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). 24 November 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
  25. ↑ "Nahikari García". Soccerway.
  26. ↑ Roldan, Isabel (26 February 2015). "Nahikari: "En el fútbol hay que tener ambición y querer más"". AS (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  27. ↑ Kusuma Ward, Wulan (27 February 2015). "Nahikari Garcia, Gol-Gol Di Masa Depan Berasal Dari Real Sociedad". Women's Soccer ID (in Indonesian). Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  28. ↑ Roldan, Isabel (21 July 2016). "Nahikari: "El fútbol me ayuda con mis estudios de Medicina"". AS (in Spanish). Retrieved 3 August 2016.
  29. ↑ "Nahikari García, el presente y el futuro del gol en España". Marca (in Spanish). 24 February 2015. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
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