Carlos Gurpegui
Gurpegui in 2014
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Carlos Gurpegui Nausia | ||
| Date of birth | 19 August 1980 | ||
| Place of birth | Pamplona, Spain | ||
| Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||
| Playing position | Centre back / Defensive midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1997–1998 | Izarra | ||
| 1998–1999 | Athletic Bilbao | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1998 | Izarra | 1 | (0) |
| 1999–2000 | Basconia | 33 | (15) |
| 2000–2002 | Bilbao Athletic | 56 | (5) |
| 2002–2016 | Athletic Bilbao | 313 | (18) |
| Total | 403 | (38) | |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Carlos Gurpegui Nausia (alternate spelling Gurpegi; born 19 August 1980) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a central defender or a defensive midfielder.
He spent his entire professional career with Athletic Bilbao, which was marred by a two-year ban due to a nandrolone positive test. Over the course of 14 La Liga seasons, he appeared in 393 games all competitions comprised whilst scoring 22 goals.
A product of the famous Athletic Bilbao's Lezama youth academy, Gurpegui was born in Pamplona, Navarre, and made his first-team – and La Liga – debut on 31 March 2002 in a 2–5 away defeat against Villarreal CF, going on to establish himself as the first-choice holding midfielder in the following years with 121 games in four seasons. On 17 January 2004, he scored a late equaliser against FC Barcelona in a 1–1 draw at the Camp Nou.
Gurpegui was banned for two years on 3 November 2003, for testing positive for nandrolone in a 1 September 2002 game against Real Sociedad (2–4 away defeat, scoring both goals) the previous season. The ban was initially suspended after repeated appeals, with the player claiming that his body produced nandrolone naturally, but the appeals were in vain as he eventually was forced to serve his sentence, which ran until 23 April 2008; Athletic Bilbao, however, neither released the player nor took his number from the official squad, and he returned to action in a 0–3 away loss to Real Madrid, four days later.
In the 2008–09 season, Gurpegui was used mostly as a backup due to the emergence of youngster Javi Martínez, but regained his starting position in the following years, precisely alongside Martínez. On 28 November 2010, he headed home in the last minute against hometown's CA Osasuna, in a 1–0 home win.
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