Saul Niguez

Saul Niguez is a Spanish professional footballer

Saúl Ñíguez born 21 November 1994 known simply as Saúl, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Atlético Madrid as a central or defensive midfielder.

After coming through Atlético Madrid's youth academy, he went on to appear in more than 200 competitive matches for the club. In the 2013–14 season, he was on loan at Rayo Vallecano also in La Liga.

Having represented Spain at various youth levels, Saúl helped the under-21 team finish second in the 2017 European Championship, being top scorer in the process. He was selected by the senior side to the 2018 World Cup.

Saúl earned 47 caps for Spain, all youth levels comprised. On 26 May 2015, he was called to the full side for a friendly with Costa Rica and a UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying match against Belarus, but did not make his debut on either occasion; he, Sergio Rico and Lucas Vázquez were the three uncapped players in a provisional squad for the final tournament in France, but he was eventually cut alongside Isco.

Saúl made his full debut on 1 September 2016, playing 15 minutes in a 2–0 friendly win in Belgium. He was crowned top scorer at the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, notably scoring a hat-trick to help see off Italy 3–1 in the semi-finals.

Back with the full side, Saúl was selected by manager Julen Lopetegui for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. He was an unused squad member during the tournament, which ended in a round-of-16 exit.

On 27 April 2016, Saúl played 85 minutes in the first leg of the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League against FC Bayern Munich, and also scored the only goal at the Vicente Calderón Stadium after an individual effort.[15] The following 18 April, in the same competition but in the last-eight stage, he netted through a rare header to help to a 1–1 draw at Leicester City (2–1 aggregate triumph) also in that month, in an interview given to Diario AS, he admitted to having played for "two seasons" under extremely painful circumstances.

On 1 July 2017, Saúl signed a new nine-year contract.

Saúl came from a football family: his father, José Antonio, played several years with Elche CF – including the 1984–85 season in the top division – as a striker. His brothers, Aarón and Jonathan, were also footballers.