Alberto Zapater Arjol is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Real Zaragoza mainly as a defensive midfielder. He spent most of his career with Zaragoza, appearing in 326 official games and scoring 11 goals.
Club career
Zaragoza
Zapater was born in Ejea de los Caballeros, Province of Zaragoza. In 2004, he was first touted as a promising player after scoring 12 goals for hometown's Real Zaragoza in the youth leagues. The first-team manager, former Spanish international Víctor Muñoz, was impressed enough, allowing Zapater to join the first team in pre-season training. He was given his official debut on Zaragoza's first game of 2004–05, against Valencia CF in the Spanish Supercup: although the Aragonese ended up losing 0–1 he put up a solid performance overall, confirmed in the 3–1 second leg away win. At just 19, Zapater went on to feature in 31 La Liga matches during the league campaign, netting in a 2 March 2005 defeat at Real Sociedad where he was also sent off. In the following season, he helped the club finish as runners-up in the Copa del Rey – losing the final to RCD Espanyol – while also only missing three league matches; his strong tackling and the amount of fouls he committed earned him the nickname of 'The Bull', given by Diego Maradona. In the following two seasons, after renewing his contract until June 2010, Zapater remained an undisputed starter, only missing four contests combined while experiencing qualification honours to the UEFA Cup in 2006–07, and relegation the following year.
Abroad
In late July 2009, after being instrumental in Zaragoza's return to the top division, and already playing pre-season football with the Maños, Zapater left for Genoa C.F.C. for around €4.5 million, as the Spaniards were also immerse in a deep financial crisis. He held an emotional press conference before parting ways with his boyhood team, whilst fans paid tribute to the player dedicating a song to him. On 17 September 2009, Zapater had the distinction of scoring the first ever goal in the Europa League proper, with a fourth-minute strike against SK Slavia Prague. He started throughout most of his debut season in Serie A – his maiden appearance in the competition being marked with a goal and an assist, in a 3–2 home win over A.S. Roma– as Genoa finished in mid-table; before the end of the campaign and during the subsequent off-season he was linked with a move to several clubs, but nothing ever materialized. On 30 July 2010, Zapater was sold to Sporting CP as Miguel Veloso moved in the opposite direction. Used intermittently in his only season he did appear in 34 official games for the Lions, scoring four times. On 3 August 2011, Zapater moved to Russian side FC Lokomotiv Moscow on a free transfer, signing a five-year contract. He made his first Premier League appearance on 11 September, setting up Manuel da Costa's goal in a 4–2 win over FC Zenit Saint Petersburg; in an interview with a newspaper from his native region in late 2012, he spoke of his development in the new reality and his efforts to learn the Russian language.
Return home
On 19 June 2016, Zapater returned to Zaragoza after agreeing to a two-year deal.
