Santiago Cañizares

Born in Madrid but raised in Puertollano, Castilla–La Mancha from where his parents hailed, Cañizares started his career with Real Madrid in 1988, playing initially with its C team. He started professionally with Elche, Mérida and Celta de Vigo, making his first La Liga appearance with the Galicians in the 1992–93 season, missing only two league games during his tenure and subsequently returning to Real Madrid. Unable to cement a starting place, his best output being 26 matches during 1997–98 (but he lost his place in the final part of the year to Bodo Illgner, thus missing the 1998 Champions League final), Cañizares moved to Valencia in 1998 to replace the retired Andoni Zubizarreta. He helped the club to win the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España in 1999, also reaching consecutive UEFA Champions League finals (2000 and 2001, saving a penalty from Bayern Munich's Mehmet Scholl in normal time of an eventual penalty shootout defeat in the latter edition) and winning national championships in 2002 and 2004, adding the 2004 UEFA and Super Cups; following the latter campaign, the 34-year-old renewed his contract with the Che for a further two years. In December 2007, Cañizares, alongside teammates Miguel Ángel Angulo and David Albelda, was axed by manager Ronald Koeman, with all three players limited to training and unable to join another side in Spain, having already played four league games. In late April 2008, however, with Koeman's sacking, all three were reinstated by new…

Cañizares earned 46 caps for Spain, debuting on 17 November 1993 in a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Denmark. As Zubizarreta was sent off in the tenth minute, he kept a clean sheet; the match ended in a 1–0 victory for the Spaniards. However, Cañizares was often second choice, and only played five games in the major international scene, one in the 1994 World Cup against South Korea (as Zubizarreta served a one-match ban), three in UEFA Euro 2000 and one in the 2006 World Cup. He was also a squad member at the Euro 1996, 1998 World Cup, and Euro 2004; however, he did not take part in any of them, being behind by Zubizarreta in the 1990s and Iker Casillas in 2004. He was equally unused by the gold-winning team at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where Toni Jiménez appeared in all the matches. Cañizares' club form ensured himself starter status in the 2002 World Cup, but he missed out on the tournament due to an accident with an aftershave bottle, which resulted in a severed tendon in his foot. He was also in Spain's squad at the following edition, making his only appearance in Germany and last in his international career in the last group match, a 1–0 victory over Saudi Arabia in Kaiserslautern.

Cañizares was considered to be one of the best goalkeepers of his generation, with Peter Schmeichel lauding him as the best goalkeeper in the world in 2004. Although he was a good shot-stopper who possessed good reflexes and penalty-stopping abilities, he was not known to be a spectacular goalkeeper, although he was capable of producing difficult saves when necessary. He was mainly known for his consistency, composure, outstanding positional, sense and reading of the game, as well as ability to organise the back-line, and was a vocal presence in goal.

In October 2010, Cañizares competed for the first time in a scoring event for the Spanish Rally Championship, driving a Suzuki Swift with co-driver Dani Cué in the Sierra Morena Rally. The following year, with the same car and the same partner, he was part of the Suzuki Ibérica Motor Sport team. During a session in the 2016 Sierra Morena Rally, Cañizares crashed his vehicle after attempting to break coming into a bend. He eventually emerged unharmed from the accident. On 17 June 2017, Cañizares earned his first victory by winning the Rally de la Cerámica with a Porsche 997. Later that year, he was crowned Valencian Community champion.