24. Carlos Cuellar
Position: Centre Back / Right Back Date of Birth: 23rd August 1981 Place of Birth: Madrid, Spain Caps: 0* Height: 190cm
Carlos began his career at the Spanish fourth division side CD Calahorra. He made 19 league appearances before being signed by second division side Numancia in 2001. Carlos began to build a good reputation at Numancia, where he spent two seasons playing 62 league games and scoring 4 goals.
Osasuna snapped up the bright defender in 2003. During his time there is reached the Copa Del Rey final in 2005, and finished fourth in the league in 2006, qualifying for the prestigious Champions League competition. The following season, Oasasuna were knocked out of the elite European competition early on and entered the then called UEFA Cup. Carlos made 7 appearances in the competition that season as his side reached the Semi-Finals. Carlos also scored twice in the tournament, including the fastest goal that season against Bayer 04 Leverkusen in April 2007. He went on to make 71 league appearances and scored 2 goals during 4 years at Osasuna.
Glasgow side Rangers signed Carlos for £2.37m in the 2007 summer transfer window. In his first month in Scottish Premier League, he won player of the month. His first goal came in a 4-0 victory of Gretna. Cuéllar had a great first season at Ibrox. Despite not getting his hands on the Premier League trophy, he did manage to help Rangers win the Scottish League Cup and the Scottish Cup as well as finishing Runner-Up in the UEFA Cup that season.
On a personal level, Carlos won the SPL Player of the Year Award and was also named Scottish Football Writers Associations Player of the Year. During his only season at Ibrox he made 36 league appearances scoring 4 goals.
Despite stating, ‘I want to stay at Rangers for life’, Carlos moved to English club Villa for £7.8m in August 2008. His first appearance for Villa came in 3-1 victory over PFC Litex Lovech in September. He started his first league game for the club in October 2008 where he played right back against Portsmouth.
Carlos scored the winning penalty in the 4-3 penalty shoot-out victory against Juventus in the pre-season Peace Cup at the end of the season.
His only goals for Villa have came against Bolton in November 2009, and Manchester United in February 2010. He was part of the League Cup Runners-Up side in 2010.
There are strong speculation that he will be returning to Rangers soon enough, as Villa have already accepted a bid from his former club.
Honours;
Copa Del Rey Runner-Up 04/05 (Osasuna)
Scottish League Cup 07/08 (Rangers)
Scottish Cup 07/08 (Rangers)
UEFA Cup Runner-Up 07/08 (Rangers)
Peace Cup Wnner 2009 (Aston Villa)
League Cup Runner-Up 09/10 (Aston Villa)
SPL Player of the Year 07/08
SFWA Footballer of the Year 07/08
(*-as of 1st May 2011)
