Who is José Luis Gayà, the Valencia CF captain in the club's top 7 all-time appearances?

José Luis Gayà was born on 25 May 1995 in Pedreguer, in Alicante province. The left-back is now captain of Valencia CF, an armband he has worn since 2020.

His father drove back and forth between Pedreguer and Paterna every day, around a hundred kilometres, for several years, to take his son to training. He also has a brother, Álex Gayà, to whom he is reportedly close (to be treated with caution, not precisely re-sourced).

In Pedreguer he started out as a forward, scoring over 60 goals in one youth season. He was scouted by Valencia CF at 11 and joined the Ciutat Esportiva in Paterna, where the youth academy coaches repositioned him as a left-back. He made his professional debut on 30 October 2012, in the Copa del Rey.

On 14 March 2026, Gayà played his 400th official match for Valencia, becoming the 7th player in the club's history to reach that milestone.

With Mestalla living out its final seasons before the move to a new stadium, he said on 16 July 2026: "me emociona... Mestalla y Valencia es mi casa" ("it moves me... Mestalla and Valencia are my home"). In the same interview: "Tenemos que ser más ambiciosos desde el principio... sentirnos muy fuertes en Mestalla" ("We need to be more ambitious from the start... to feel very strong at Mestalla").

Photo credit: photo by Werner100359, CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, Wikimedia Commons.