After excellent displays at Celta, he spent an entire decade at Real Madrid, where former teammate Steve McManaman attested to his aggressive style by describing him as "the hardest person in the world....a genuine psychopath, even in training.

Salgado, who played 341 La Liga matches and scored seven goals, represented the Spain national team over eight years, collecting more than 50 caps and appearing in one World Cup and one European Championship.

Born in As Neves, Province of Pontevedra, Galicia,[5] Salgado began his professional career with hometown's RC Celta de Vigo,[6] making his La Liga debut on 22 January 1995 in a 4–0 away loss against Real Madrid.

[8] Whilst at Celta, Salgado was involved in an incident with Atlético Madrid's Juninho Paulista in February 1998: after a dangerous challenge, the Brazilian was sidelined for six months and missed that year's FIFA World Cup.

[18] In the following two campaigns he featured very rarely (only 17 appearances), being sent off in the final game of 2008–09, a 2–1 loss at CA Osasuna on 31 May 2009 as Madrid slumped to a fifth consecutive league defeat.

[20] Salgado moved to Blackburn Rovers of the Premier League on 19 August 2009, signing a two-year deal after impressing manager Sam Allardyce whilst on trial.

[26] Blackburn manager Steve Kean revealed in December 2011 that Salgado was being omitted from the squad as his contract stated that the player was entitled to a new deal if he played nine more matches in the campaign, the club not being able to afford fresh terms.

[32] He settled in Dubai, United Arab Emirates after retiring, and in 2020 helped to found Fursan Hispania FC, initially as an academy.