Roberto Soldado: Levante striker commits horror challenge in friendly vs Villarreal | OneFootball

Roberto Soldado has had a fruitful career in professional football.

The Spanish striker has enjoyed success in La Liga with numerous clubs including Getafe, Valencia and Granada.

He has amassed over 650 appearances in his professional career and scored over 270 times.

He's even made 12 appearances for Spain, hitting the back of the net on seven occasions.

Now 36 years old, Soldado is still going strong.

He will still be performing in La Liga as he transferred to Levante in the summer.

Soldado was in the starting lineup for his new side in their pre-season friendly against Villarreal.

Thursday's game meant a little bit more to Soldado as he played for Villarreal for two seasons between 2015-2017.

But, unfortunately, Soldado let his emotions get the better of him as he produced a horror challenge just before half-time.

The Spanish striker was beaten to the ball by 21-year-old defender, Jorge Cuenca.

Soldado then lashed out as he produced an extremely poor challenge which caught the youngster on the back of the calf.

Ouch. That is a shocker.

To see that sort of challenge in any game, let alone a pre-season friendly, is unacceptable.

Soldado was never, ever going to get the ball which begs the question of why he even bothered to make the challenge.

Amazingly, Soldado wasn't even given a red card, with the referee handing a booking to the veteran striker.

Fortunately, Cuenca was able to continue and appears to have escaped without injury.

The game ended 0-0 as neither side were able to get on the scoresheet.

Whether any retrospective punishment is given to Soldado remains to be seen.

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