Joel Apezteguía Hijuelos

Apezteguía is a professional football player who has played as a forward for the San Marino team in the first division Tre Fiori.

From a young age his father put a ball at his feet and there, more or less, his story began. Joel started in football, informally, practicing in the Reparto Nuevo Vedado neighborhood where the "José Luis Arruñada" school was located, which to this day hosts a field where the young people of the neighborhood play.

First everything was at the municipal level and then he moved to the academy, which was in Fajardo. He joined the Industriales team and in his first season he scored six goals, he was fifteen or sixteen years old. Later the Ciudad de La Habana team called him.

Later he went on to play futsal and in the provincial tournament he scored 45 goals. That was in the first year. In the second year he scored roughly the same amount. Then they call him for the national team. He scored 19 and the call came to join Cuba. He couldn't accept that offer. He had to go to Spain. His father needed him.

In 2007 he went to live with his father in Vigo, Spain. There he worked in a port loading fish. Playing on the beach some Spanish boys saw him and highlighted his talent, and that's how he came to play on a fourth division team in Galicia.

In the bar, with his father, he gave salsa classes. He also helped him prepare the drinks, to sell coffee. He always got up at six in the morning, went to the port and returned, more or less, at four in the afternoon. Then he went to the bar and later, around six or seven in the evening, he would leave to train. After training he would go back to the bar. That was life. That's how it was for almost a year. Loading fish at least helped him strengthen his legs, to gain strength and keep fighting.

That team where I tried out and then played was a team from Galicia called Arbo. With coach Enrique, better known to everyone as Kike, he still maintains communication. That year they won the championship. Joel scored 19 goals and was given the number 10 shirt.

The coach wanted him to stay on the team because he thought Joel had the talent to play in higher categories, like the second division, the first. He was 24 years old. He couldn't play in higher levels because he didn't have the necessary documents.

After Galicia he headed to Barcelona. There he found a cousin who took him to different teams. In one of them they wanted to test him, he played well, scored two or three goals. He stayed. The president had very good contacts in Moldova and had the opportunity to play in the first division of that country. He asked him if he was interested in playing there. Without knowing the country, he set off for there.

Later he decided to try himself with Norwegian teams. Everything comes through a friend who took him to clubs like Valerenga, Stabæk IF. Norway is a country where all the conditions exist to play football. He played indoors, on spectacular fields, always in a full stadium. He was 25 or 26 years old.

He returned to Spain and to Manresa, where he had been before, in Barcelona. I changed representatives, and the new one, Jordi Guardiola, saw my resume and opened more doors for me. He told me he was going to test me on a third division team to see if my talent was real. At Manresa I always scored goals. Fifteen or sixteen in the first year and in the other two seasons I was at roughly similar numbers.

On that same team he had the fortune to meet a boy named Édgar. He's like his other brother. As soon as he arrived he welcomed him and then took him to his house. He made him live there with his family. They knew the situation Joel was in with his father in Galicia. The distance is huge. They told him to come live with them so he wouldn't be alone in a rental house.

He played, at that time, on several Spanish teams. He was at Ripollet. He also had the fortune that, while at Manresa, when he went on vacation to Italy, he met who would become his wife. After about two years of knowing her, she told him that her father had been sports director of several Italian clubs. Her father, with different contacts, spoke with a representative, showed him his resume and some videos and told him that if he wanted to sign with an Albanian team, Teuta, which was in the first division. He didn't have the documents yet to play in Italy. He went to Albania and didn't expect it to be such an important league.

There he had the pleasure of meeting the great goalkeeper Roberto Sorrentino, who played for Napoli and other important teams. He was the coach and he welcomed him like a son. He liked his style of play. He didn't score on his debut, but on the second appearance he did. Later he scored four in one game. Then he returned to Manresa. He scored seven goals in that campaign in Albania.

He got married and moved to Italy. He played for Fano, a fourth division team. Later he went to Gassino San Raffaele, in Turin and scored 31 goals. He then moved to Chisola. He played with them one or two games. He told the president: "I don't like to do these things, but I can't stand being away from my wife, I can't adapt to the squad and I want a way out".

Then he signed with Anconitana, which is a team that has played in Serie A and B. If a team like that calls you it's because you've done good work and scored many goals. He didn't play as a center forward, which was his natural position, but as a left winger, always open towards the wing. He didn't disappoint. In 2017 he left with 21 goals.

The Cuban footballer had already scored four goals in a game of the Albanian Superliga on February 2, 2014 against KS Lushnja, which ended with a 6-2 victory and took Teuta to second place. He added three more goals to his final tally in Albania in Cup games.

In Italy he has some records. He is the first Cuban to score 31 goals in an Italian championship. He is the first Cuban to debut for Anconitana. No foreigner had scored 21 goals with Anconitana. A Cuban who comes to Italy and scores 52 goals in two years… it's something very beautiful.

While in Italy, his father became ill, he had lung cancer and Joel had to abandon everything to be by his side and spend his last days with him.

Now he plays for the Italian club Tre Fiore, from San Marino, which was defeated with a score of 2-0 against Linfield, from Northern Ireland, in the semifinal match of the UEFA preliminary round, held at the Colovray Sports Center in Nyon, Switzerland.

In that match the Cuban was in the starting lineup, however, he couldn't score any goals. Despite the setback, he continued to value the historic experience of being the first of his countrymen to play a preliminary phase of the most important club football tournament in the world.

Tre Fiore was crowned in 2020 as San Marino champion, thanks in part to a notable performance by the Cuban, who plays with the number 11 shirt. The club was in first place when the tournament organizers decided not to continue the season due to the pandemic. Apezteguía scored 7 goals in 8 games.

In four seasons, until 2020, he has scored 85 goals, of which 15 have been this year in different competitions with Tre Fiore.

Joel Apezteguía dreams of being part of his home country's squad. He has said: My debut with the Cuba team is a lifelong dream. I hope it happens. And I score a goal. By God's grace.