A left-back of vim and vigour, Ignacio 'Nacho' Monreal has emerged as a potential successor to Joan Capdevila for Spain's UEFA European Championship title defence in Poland and Ukraine. He spent several seasons gaining his Liga spurs with CA Osasuna before switching to ambitious Málaga CF in summer 2011.

• Born in Pamplona, he joined local club Osasuna as a schoolboy and worked his way up through the youth ranks before making his Liga debut at Valencia CF in October 2006.

• Made his European bow before that, appearing in both legs of a UEFA Champions League qualifier against Hamburger SV, and went on to make four further appearances as Osasuna reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup, where they lost to eventual winners Sevilla FC.

• Became the club's first-choice left-back in 2007/08, making 27 Liga appearances and scoring one goal − in a 2-1 defeat at Levante UD; also broke into Spain's Under-21 team and appeared at the 2009 UEFA European U21 Championship in Sweden, starting all three matches.

• Went on to make 127 top-flight appearances for Osasuna − all in the starting XI − before joining Málaga in June 2011 for a fee of €6m.

• Made his senior debut for Spain in August 2009, as a substitute for Capdevila in a friendly against the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and started a FIFA World Cup qualifier against Armenia but was not included in the squad for the finals; made no UEFA EURO 2012 qualifying appearances either but was recalled for the November 2011 friendly in Costa Rica.