Player #811 for Aston Villa, Carlos Javier Cuéllar Jiménez played as a centre back for the club between 2008-09 and 2011-12 making 121 appearances and scoring 3 goals.

Cuéllar was born in Madrid on 23 August 1981 and was signed by Martin O’Neill from Glasgow Rangers for £9,000,000 on 12 August 2008.

O’Neill handed Cuéllar his debut appearance for Villa on Thursday, 18 September 2008 aged 27.

In total Cuéllar made 37 appearances in his debut season including 33 starts as he played alongside a truly talented backline of Luke Young, Martin Laursen and Wilfred Bouma.

Cuéllar made 48 appearances in 2009-10 in a new look defence of Richard Dunne, James Collins and Stephen Warnock and helped Villa to the League Cup final, an FA Cup Semi Final and a 6th placed finish in the Premier League.

Indeed after the relative mistakes of signing centre backs Curtis Davies and Zat Knight earlier in his tenure as Villa boss, Martin O’Neill came up trumps bringing Cuéllar to the club.

An excellent, unfussy defender who fitted into Villa and their style with aplomb unfortunately O’Neill’s time at Villa was soon at an end as he chose to leave on the eve of the 2010-11 campaign leaving Villa with a succession of poor managers who criminally underused Cuéllar.

Gérard Houllier in 2010-11 gave Cuéllar just 17 appearances whilst Alex McLeish granted him 18 starts and one substitute appearance as well as often being played out of position.

A great fan favourite Cuéllar was sold well ahead of his sell-by date.

Typically of the man Cuéllar had no complaints and it was a sad day when he was allowed to leave Villa having made his final appearance on Sunday, 13 May 2012 aged 30.