Juan Merino
Spanish football player/manager
Juan Merino Ruiz (born 24 August 1970) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played mainly as a central defender, currently a manager.
He played solely in Andalusia in an 18-year career, with Betis and Recreativo. He appeared in more than 200 matches in both La Liga and the Segunda División.
Subsequently, Merino worked as a manager, including jobs at his former clubs.
Playing career
Born in La Línea de la Concepción, Province of Cádiz, Merino joined Real Betis's first team in 1990, becoming their captain in later years. Out of his 12 years at the club eight were in La Liga, and he appeared in 203 games in that division, scoring two goals; in the 1996–97 season, he contributed 36 matches to help to a fourth-place finish.
In 2002–03, staying in Andalusia, Merino signed a two-year contract with Recreativo de Huelva. In his first season the side was relegated, regaining top-flight status in 2006 as champions. After featuring in 23 games in the 2006–07 campaign he retired from football, with 522 professional appearances to his credit.
Coaching career
Immediately after retiring, Merino rejoined Betis as director of football.
The public source identifies “Juan Merino” as spanish football player/manager. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Juan, Merino and Spanish.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3323965. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1990, 1996 and 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “Juan Merino” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.