Miguel Ángel Angulo Valderrey is a Spanish former professional footballer. Predominantly an attacking midfielder, he was also able to play as a right winger and even as a right back or a forward. Basing his football in inexhaustible physical display, Angulo was much appreciated by trainers because of his versatility, and spent most of his career at Valencia where he won a total of seven major titles, including two La Liga championships and the 2004 UEFA Cup.
Club career
Valencia
Born in Oviedo, Asturias, Angulo began his football career with local Sporting de Gijón, joining Valencia CF in 1995 at the age of 18. After spending some time with the reserves he was loaned in the 1996–97 campaign to second division club Villarreal CF, before returning to Valencia in the following summer. Never an undisputed starter, Angulo amassed more than 300 appearances in his first ten professional years at Valencia, being a very important element in the Che's La Liga conquest in 2002 and 2004, while also starting in the 2004 UEFA Cup final which the club won over Olympique de Marseille; due to the ageing of the previous starter, French Jocelyn Angloma, he played several matches as an attacking right back, as the team operated mainly in a 5–3–2 formation. In the summer of 2004, Angulo pulled out of a transfer to Arsenal after a last minutechange of heart. His agent claimed this was due to the player's anxiety at moving to London – he had already completed part of his medical. He continued to be heavily played in Valencia in the following three seasons combined, netting 15 times in 93 league contests; on 15 December 2004, he was handed a seven-match ban by UEFA after being sent off in a UEFA Cup tie against SV Werder Bremen where he kicked Nelson Valdez and subsequently spat on Tim Borowski. On 20 December 2007, Angulo, along with Santiago Cañizares and David Albelda, was axed from the squad by new coach Ronald Koeman. In late April of the following year, however, with Koeman's sacking, all three were reinstated by new manager Voro in a squad seriously threatened with relegation, with five remaining games. On 27 April he returned to action, playing five minutes in a 3–0 home win against CA Osasuna after having come on as a substitute for David Villa; two weeks later he started his first post-reinstatement match, scoring in a 5–1 away routing of already relegatedLevante UD.
Sporting
In August 2009, after a mediocre campaign individually, Angulo was released by Valencia, thus ending a 14-year relationship. Late in the same month he agreed to a one-year contract with Sporting CP, but after just four months, he was released by the Lisbon club, grossly unsettled, and pondered his retirement, which was confirmed the following week.
