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On This Day in LaLiga History - Aduriz LaLiga debut
This day back in 2002 saw a tall wiry 21-year-old homegrown Athletic Club striker called Aritz Aduriz enter from the bench to make his LaLiga debut, replacing established centre-forward Santi Ezquerro late on. Athletic lost that game 0-2 to Barcelona, and Aduriz did not get many more first team chances before leaving for third tier Burgos the following year.
He later returned to score 172 LaLiga Santander goals for Los Leones, the last of which was the dramatic injury time winner against Barça on the opening day of the 2019/20 season.
Injury forced Aduriz to retire, aged 39, last May. By then his understated start had been mostly forgotten as he had written his place in the club history thanks to his combative style of play and open personality.
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