Borja Criado

Borja Eduardo Criado Malagarriga (born 16 April 1982) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a forward.

Criado was born in Barcelona, Catalonia. After signing in 2001 with Valencia CF from CE Europa in his native city, he spent the vast majority of his three-year spell with the Che's reserves, appearing three times in La Liga for the club, precisely in the season where it failed to win the national championship during his stay; Rafael Benítez was in charge in his league debut on 1 December 2002, a 0–0 away draw against Deportivo Alavés (three minutes played).

In 2004, Criado joined another reserve team and also in the third division, RCD Espanyol B, suffering relegation in his first season. Subsequently, he moved to the second level with Ciudad de Murcia, appearing rarely (15 games out of 42, no goals) as the club nearly promoted to the top flight.

Criado was one of the players that renamed with his team after it was relocated to Granada and renamed Granada 74 CF. In early January 2008, although initially acquitted by the Royal Spanish Football Federation's Competition Committee and Appeal Committee, he received a two-year ban for having tested positive for Finasteride in the previous year, whilst a Ciudad Murcia player. Since 2001, the player had been fighting against baldness with a product which contained the substance, interrupted the treatment for two years upon improving on his condition, then resumed it in 2005, the year when Finasteride was banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency due to the fact it could be used to mask other drugs, as steroids.

Upon appeal, Criado's sentence was reduced to nine months, then three, but he eventually chose to retire after losing all motivation, aged just 26.