Daniel Martín

Born in Seville, Dani started playing professionally with his hometown club Real Betis, and started out with their reserves, a spell that included six goals in 27 games in 1999–2000 in the Segunda División B. On 4 November 2001, he made his first-team – and La Liga – debut, playing the second half of a 0–1 home loss against Real Zaragoza and finishing the season with 17 appearances and five goals. After having missed most of the 2002–03 campaign due to a serious knee injury, occurred in April 2002 and relapsed in August, Dani was knocked unconscious during a league game against Deportivo de La Coruña in November 2003, and was unable to remember a disallowed goal he had scored earlier. However, he continued to grab important goals for the Andalusia side with relatively little playing time, most notably the extra time winner in the 2005 final of the Copa del Rey against CA Osasuna, adding the only goal in the 1–0 home victory over Chelsea in the group stage of UEFA Champions League. On 20 August 2005, his brace at the Camp Nou helped to defeat FC Barcelona 2–1 in the Supercopa de España, but the Catalans had already won the first leg 3–0. Dani scored against Real Madrid on 18 January 2007, eliminating the eventual league champions from domestic cup contention; his equalising goal gave Betis a 1–1 draw, putting them through to the quarter-finals on the away goals rule. However, he finished the league with only 14 appearances, not being able to find the net. Under contract until…

Dani earned his only cap for Spain at under-21 level on 26 March 2002, featuring 60 minutes of a 3–0 friendly win in the Netherlands.

Betis

Copa del Rey: 2004–05