Carlos Gurpegui

Born in Pamplona and raised in the village of Andosilla, Navarre, Gurpegui was a product of Athletic Bilbao's Lezama youth academy, and made his first-team – and La Liga – debut on 31 March 2002 in a 5–2 away defeat against Villarreal, 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 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 (4–2 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 and 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 3–0 away loss to Real Madrid four days later. In the 2008–09 campaign, 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 club Osasuna, in a 1–0 home win. Gurpegui was again an important player in 2011–12 under new coach Marcelo Bielsa. On 23 October 2011, having replaced Andoni…

Gurpegui played six matches (one goal) for the unofficial Basque selection. He also featured for the equivalent Navarrese team. Gurpegui had already retired from club football when he appeared in his last friendly for the Basque Country on 27 May 2016, a draw and win on penalties over Corsica.

On retiring from playing, Gurpegui was appointed to a coaching role at Athletic Bilbao working under Ernesto Valverde. However, when the latter moved to Barcelona in the 2017 off-season he did not take the former with him, nor was there any place in the new structure under José Ángel Ziganda; instead, Gurpegui was appointed as an ambassador for the club. In December 2021, having rejoined Athletic's coaching network, Gurpegui signed as manager of the farm team, Basconia, with previous incumbent Patxi Salinas having moved up to the reserves. On 30 May 2023, he replaced Alex Pallarés at the helm of the latter, recently relegated to Segunda Federación. On 6 May 2024, after achieving promotion to the Primera Federación as league winners, Gurpegui stepped down from his position.

Gurpegui's older brother, Pedro María, was also a footballer who played as a forward. He had a spell in the reserve side of Osasuna, coming up against his younger sibling in a league fixture in the semi-professional Segunda División B in 2000. Pedro's career stalled after a serious knee injury, and he never played above that level.