Carlos Gurpegui

Carlos Gurpegui is a Spanish football player who currently features for the Spanish football club Athletic Bilbao. He plays as a defensive midfielder.

Gurpegui has been at Bilbao his entire career, having progressed through the club’s youth academy. He has made over 230 La Liga appearances for the Basque giants.

Gurpegui played for Bilbao’s C team – Baskonia – for the 1999-2000 campaign after which he was promoted to the B side – Bilbao Athletic. He played for them for two years, and was thereafter fully promoted to the first team.

Gurpegui’s first-team debut in La Liga came on March 31, 2002 in a 5-2 away defeat to Villarreal. However, on November 3, 2003 he was banned for two years after testing positive for nandrolone in a previous season. Subsequent appeals failed to make any difference, and the ban ran until April 23, 2008.

Gurpegui played a crucial role in Bilbao’s successful 2011-12 campaign in which they reached the finals of the Europa League and the Copa del Rey.