Cristian Portilla

Portilla was born in Santander, Cantabria. The son of a former footballer,^[2][3] he entered local Racing de Santander's youth academy at nine after allegedly receiving an offer from Deportivo de La Coruña after a tournament, which his father turned down.

After playing with the reserves, Portilla first appeared with the professionals on 27 October 2005 during a 1–1 away draw against Real Zaragoza,^[4] playing two more La Liga games during the season. In his first years he could only add another appearance with the main squad and, in January 2008, was loaned to Racing de Ferrol^[5] who were finally relegated from the second division.

To further continue his development as a player (still aged 20), Portilla was loaned again the following campaign, moving to SD Ponferradina in the third level.^[6] For 2009–10 he was bought by Sporting de Gijón of the top flight, with Santander having an option to re-acquire the player in three years; in his first, he spent time with both the first and second teams, the latter in division three.^[7]

In late December 2010, Portilla left Asturias and joined Super League Greece club Aris Thessaloniki FC, signing a two-and-a-half-year contract.^[8] He left one year later, due to unpaid wages.

Portilla did not settle with any team the following years, representing CD Atlético Baleares,^[9] Glyfada FC,^[10][11] Budapest Honvéd FC,^[12] Mitra Kukar FC,^[13] Ermis Aradippou FC,^[14] FC Tatabánya and CD Mensajero.^[15] On 17 January 2017, he moved to the North American Soccer League with the San Francisco Deltas,^[16] winning the Soccer Bowl in his first season even though he did not appear in the decisive match against the New York Cosmos due to injury.^[17]

On 8 February 2018, Portilla signed with Ottawa Fury FC of the United Soccer League following a two-week pre-season trial, joining former Deltas teammates Nana Attakora and Maxim Tissot.^[18] Eleven months later, he joined Lithuanian A Lyga runners-up FK Žalgiris.^[19]

As of match played 22 August 2015^[1]