Ekain

Attacking Midfielder (C) - Real Murcia
18 Jan 2027
Monday
Process
Overview Personal Contract News 4 Transfers Relations Events 85 Awards Matches History

Marked for Ekain

23 Edition

The Real Murcia Courier

4 Jan 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market4 Jan 2027

Antxón Jaso hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Real Murcia can pretend not to have heard.

Transfer targets4 Jan 2027

Carlos Fernández is a medical away from Real Murcia

The deal with Oviedo is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.

Squad4 Jan 2027

Tempers go at Real Murcia

Óscar Gil was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Match2 Jan 2027

Real Murcia make home a hard place to visit

9 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Squad4 Jan 2027

Juan Carlos falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Transfer targets4 Jan 2027

A loan move for Obed Vargas is in the works

Real Murcia have made the call to Atlético Madrid. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.

Transfer targets4 Jan 2027

Real Murcia try to borrow Tao Paradowski

Ibiza have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.

The dugout4 Jan 2027

The manager’s verdict

“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Javier Espinosa was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Real Murcia dressing room was either.

Market4 Jan 2027

Ekain told to find a new club

“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ekain has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Real Murcia.

In brief

Back issues
20 Edition

The Real Murcia Courier

14 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Match9 Dec 2026

The small margins put Real Murcia out

Out, 1‑2 to Atlético Madrid, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.

Squad14 Dec 2026

Miguel Morro stands alone

8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Player ratings14 Dec 2026

Pedro León, 40, rolls back the years — 7.93

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 40, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad14 Dec 2026

Óscar Gil in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Murcia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match12 Dec 2026

Juan Carlos’s goal not enough for Real Murcia

Juan Carlos scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Antequera, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.

The dugout14 Dec 2026

No hiding place for Miguel Morro

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miguel Morro, and the manager let it.

Looking ahead14 Dec 2026

Real Murcia and Villarreal B meet at the summit

The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.

Squad14 Dec 2026

Juan Carlos falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout14 Dec 2026

Javier Espinosa faces the questions

“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Javier Espinosa after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.

In brief

16 Edition

The Real Murcia Courier

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad16 Nov 2026

Óscar Gil in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Murcia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad16 Nov 2026

Real Murcia lose David Díaz

22 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.

Squad16 Nov 2026

Esteban Saveljich falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

The dugout16 Nov 2026

Juanto Ortuño gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout16 Nov 2026

A promise honoured at Real Murcia

Something was said to Santiago Úbeda and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.

Looking ahead16 Nov 2026

Ekain goes back to face Ibiza

Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ekain’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Real Murcia needing him to play as if none of it matters.

In brief

8 Edition

The Real Murcia Courier

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad21 Sep 2026

Óscar Gil in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Real Murcia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad21 Sep 2026

Real improvement from Daniil Lukin at Real Murcia

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daniil Lukin is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad21 Sep 2026

A row about effort at Real Murcia

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Juanto Ortuño was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Player ratings21 Sep 2026

Moyita was the difference for Real Murcia

Marked 7.72. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.

Match19 Sep 2026

Real Murcia share the spoils with Cartagena

A 1‑1 draw with Cartagena leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

The dugout21 Sep 2026

Half-satisfied: Javier Espinosa on the draw

“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.

The dugout21 Sep 2026

Esteban Saveljich gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

The dugout21 Sep 2026

The plan did not have a place for Jon García

Nobody at Real Murcia is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.

Squad21 Sep 2026

“I want to play”: Ben Hamed speaks

“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.

In brief