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Juan Manuel Mata García (born 28 April 1988) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for A-League Men club Western Sydney Wanderers. He primarily plays as an attacking midfielder, but can also play as a winger.
A graduate of Real Madrid's youth academy, Mata played for Real Madrid Castilla in 2006–07, before joining Valencia in the summer of 2007. He became an integral part of the club's midfield, making 174 appearances over the course of four seasons and winning the Copa del Rey. In 2011, Mata signed for English club Chelsea for a fee believed to be in the region of €28 million and established himself as the team's focal player. In his first two seasons, he won the UEFA Champions League, the FA Cup, and the UEFA Europa League.
Despite Mata's stature at the club, he fell out of favour at Chelsea under newly appointed manager José Mourinho and was sold to Manchester United in January 2014, for a fee of £37.1 million. He made 285 appearances over nine seasons at United, winning the Europa League and FA Cup again as well as the EFL Cup and FA Community Shield. He joined Galatasaray after his contract with United expired in the summer of 2022, where he won the first league title of his career.
Mata debuted for Spain in 2009 and played at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, his first senior tournament. Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License - Full article |