Claudio Barragán

Claudio Barragán Escobar (born 10 April 1964) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a striker, and a current coach.

His professional career was closely associated to Elche, as both a player and manager, but he was also an important part of the Deportivo de La Coruña teams of the 90s.

Claudio amassed La Liga totals of 259 games and 66 goals over the course of nine seasons, also representing in the competition Mallorca and Salamanca. He added 181/32 in Segunda División, and started working as a coach in 2008.

Known as Claudio in his playing days, he was born in Manises, Province of Valencia, and made his senior debuts at only 16 with local Levante UD. He scored once in two full Segunda División seasons combined – being relegated in 1982 – and was also loaned to lowly AgD Ceuta.

In the 1984 summer, Claudio signed for neighbouring Elche CF, making his La Liga debut on 18 November 1984 in a 0–1 away loss against RCD Español and finishing his first season with 18 games and two goals, including one in a 1–6 defeat at Real Madrid, as the team was eventually relegated; he would gain another promotion with the club in 1988, followed by immediate relegation back.

After two top flight seasons in RCD Mallorca, reaching the Copa del Rey final in 1990–91, Claudio joined Deportivo de La Coruña in the 1991 off-season. He netted ten goals in 34 matches in his first year as the Galicians narrowly avoided relegation, beating Real Betis in the promotion/relegation playoffs.

In the following summer, however, the club bought Brazilians Bebeto and Mauro Silva, amongst others, and Super Depor came to fruition, achieving two top-two and one top-three finishes. Claudio formed an extremely efficient attacking partnership with the former, with the pair combining for 67 league goals from 1992 to 1994; he won the first and only trophy of his career in 1995, the Spanish Cup against Valencia CF, and also scored four goals in nine games in the UEFA Cup in two seasons combined.

Claudio lost his importance in Deportivo in the 1994–95 campaign after the emergence of younger Javier Manjarín and the summer signings of Emil Kostadinov and Julio Salinas, and left the team altogether prior to the start of the following season, after the appointment of new manager John Toshack. Aged 31, he signed with UD Salamanca, netting 11 goals in his first year but being relegated from the top level.

In December 1996, after suffering an injury and losing his starting place with the Castile and León side, Claudio returned to Elche, helping the club to two promotions from Segunda División B before retiring professionally at the age of 36. After two years out of football, he played a couple of seasons with amateurs Club Deportivo Alone from Guardamar del Segura, in Alicante.

Barragán joined Elche's coaching staff shortly after retiring, going on to work as an assistant with the club. Just seven games into 2008–09, he replaced fired David Vidal at the helm of the first team, finally leading them to the 12th position; he himself was sacked in early October 2009, after roughly one year in charge.

On 14 January 2011, Barragán was appointed at SD Ponferradina also in the second division, eventually not being able to prevent relegation.

During his spell with Deportivo, Claudio earned six caps for Spain. His debut came on 14 October 1992, in a 1994 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland (0–0 in Belfast).

• Copa del Rey: 1994–95