Mario Gaspar Pérez


Mario Gaspar Pérez Martínez, known as Mario, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Villarreal CF as a right back.
He spent his entire career at Villarreal, making over 350 official appearances.

Club career

Born in Novelda, Alicante, Valencian Community, Mario played youth football for Villarreal CF. On 15 March 2009, aged just 18, he made his first-team – and La Liga – debut, in a game against Atlético Madrid: he replaced Giuseppe Rossi with roughly 25 minutes to play, with the score at 2–1, but the Yellow Submarine eventually lost 2–3 away.
Mario spent the entire 2009–10 season with the reserves, starting in all 31 games he appeared in as the team easily retained its newly found Segunda División status. He was definitely promoted to the main squad midway through the following campaign, following Ángel López's severe knee injury, being also propelled to the starting XI.
On 16 January 2011, in his first start, Mario played the full 90 minutes in a 4–2 home win against CA Osasuna, finishing the season with 22 appearances. On 1 May 2012, he scored his first goal for the team, opening a 3–2 win at Sporting de Gijón towards the end of a campaign which finished with relegation.
Mario scored his first goal in European competition on 21 August 2014, concluding a 3–0 away victory over FC Astana in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League play-off.

International career

Mario earned 16 caps for Spain at youth level, including two for the under-21s. He received his first call up to the full side in October 2015, making his debut on the 12th by scoring the game's only goal in Ukraine – the last round, the nation had already secured the first position in its group – for the UEFA Euro 2016 qualifiers. He repeated the feat the following match, playing the full 90 minutes and scoring an overhead kick to open a 2–0 friendly win against England in Alicante, with the strike being nominated for the FIFA Puskás Award.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

GoalDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.12 October 2015Olympic Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine1–01–0UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying
2.13 November 2015José Rico Pérez, Alicante, Spain1–02–0Friendly