Xàbia goalkeeper Adrian Ortolá signs for Belgian club KMSK Deinze

Friday 5th August 2022 · Mike Smith
Source: KMSK Deinze · Adrian Ortolà FB

Adrian Ortolà, the experienced goalkeeper from Xàbia, has signed for Belgian First Division B side KMSK Deinze on a one-year contract with an option to extend for a further year. The 28-year-old was part of the Girona FC side which won promotion to the top flight in Spain last season for only the second time in their history.

On his Facebook page, Ortolà sent a message to the Girona fans, saying that “after achieving the long-awaited promotion with much sweat and effort, it is my turn, through these lines, to say goodbye” adding that “in Girona, I found a second home, a great dressing room and a great team with whom I have been lucky enough to share some exciting experiences, which have brought a lot of joy to the whole city”.

Now he heads abroad to Belgium and to KMSK Deinze, a team in East Flanders which plays its football in the First Division B – recently rebranded as the Challenger Pro League – and the club’s sporting director Adrián Espárraga, who has previously worked with Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City, explained that “Ortolá is a goalkeeper with excellent standards and values ​​and already a great career. He is agile and always makes good decisions to defend his goal. Offensively he can play with a lot of precision and he can offer the team great things in the build-up phase”.

Adrian Ortolá was born in Xàbia in August 1993 – he is about to turn 29 – and started his career at a youth level with Alicante CF and then Villarreal CF with whom he made his senior debut in September 2012 for the B side in the Segunda División B.

In 2011 and 2012, he was part of the Spanish Under-19 squad that claimed the European crown in the UEFA Championships, on the bench on both occasions when Spain defeated the Czech Republic in 2011 (after which he was honoured with a special municipal act by the town hall in Xàbia( and then Greece in 2012, where Chelsea’s Kepa Arrizabalaga kept a clean sheet for the young furia roja side. He also featured in the squad for the 2010 UEFA Under-17 Championships in Liechtenstein and returned with a runners-up medal after Spain reach the final but lost to England.

In 2013, he moved to FC Barcelona ‘B’ and made 97 appearances for the club between the sticks over the next five years, in addition to two appearances for Deportivo Alavés where he spent the 2016-2017 season on loan. In 2018, he spent a season on loan at RC Deportivo La Coruña but failed to make an appearance.

In 2019, he signed a two-year contract with Second Division side CD Tenerife and claimed the position between the sticks ahead of the well-established Dani Hernández but lost his place when new manager Luis Miguel Ramis arrived in late 2020. He made 51 appearances for for Blanquiazules before opting to join Girona FC in February 2021 where he made just four appearances.

Adrian is a good friend of the javeamigos team and we wish him the very best of luck as he starts a new stage in his career in Belgium.