Aritz Aduriz

[14][15] Aduriz showed continuous progress, attested by his nine La Liga goals in 34 games in 2006–07, including a hat-trick against Real Zaragoza on 19 May 2007, albeit in a 3–4 defeat.

[19] On 26 October 2008, Aduriz scored a brace for his new club in a 3–0 home victory over RCD Espanyol,[20] and finished his first year as team top scorer, for a final ninth position.

[24] From January 2011, after the arrival of Brazilian Jonas in the winter transfer window, and due to the fact manager Unai Emery often only played with one pure striker – Roberto Soldado – Aduriz found himself on the bench more often than not.

[28] On 23 August, he scored his first goals in his second spell, netting a brace in a 6–0 home rout of HJK Helsinki in the Europa League playoff round (9–3 on aggregate).

[37] In the last match of the campaign on 23 May, he netted twice in a 4–0 home victory against Villarreal CF to clinch the Zarra Trophy by surpassing Rayo Vallecano's Alberto Bueno, whilst also qualifying for the Europa League.

[38] Aduriz scored a hat-trick as Athletic won 4–0 against Barcelona in the first leg of the Supercopa de España, on 14 August 2015,[39] and equalised in a 1–1 draw in the return match to hand his team the trophy, the first of his career.

[41] Aduriz again proved influential for his team on 5 November, scoring one goal and assisting a further two in a 5–1 defeat of FK Partizan in the Europa League group stage – in the process, he reached the 100-goal mark with the club.

[47] Even though the team was eliminated in the following round by eventual winners Sevilla FC, he finished as the competition's top scorer with ten successful strikes,[48] totalling 36 overall and only trailing Telmo Zarra (47) and Bata (37) for goals during a single season with the club.

[55] Despite the club being eliminated from the 2017–18 Europa League at the last-16 stage, 37-year-old Aduriz finished as the competition's top scorer – along with SS Lazio's Ciro Immobile – with eight goals in the tournament proper.

[56] His 2018–19 campaign was severely curtailed by injuries[57] as the team generally struggled to score and collect points, and he scored only two league goals from 20 appearances; both were penalties in successive home fixtures, the first in a Panenka-style against Girona FC past former teammate Gorka Iraizoz for a last-minute 1–0 victory,[58][59][60] and the second against Valladolid an unusual precise kick with no run-up, described as a "remarkable... five-a-side... minimalist" technique.

[68][69] After an impressive start to his Valencia career, 29-year-old Aduriz earned a first call-up to the Spain national team, being picked for two UEFA Euro 2012 qualifiers in October 2010.

[77] On 12 November 2016, after contributing to a 4–0 victory over Macedonia in the 2018 World Cup qualifying phase in Granada, Aduriz became Spain's oldest ever goal scorer at the age of 35 years and 275 days.

Aduriz in 2008
Aduriz in action for Valencia in 2011
Aduriz playing with Athletic in the 2017–18 Europa League