Barcelona and Tottenham At the age of 12, Nayim left his hometown of
Ceuta and joined
FC Barcelona's youth academy
La Masia. He broke into the first team under
Terry Venables, but had very few opportunities due to 18 months of injuries. The same manager took him to
Tottenham Hotspur in November 1988 originally on loan, making him the first Spaniard to play in English football since the Basque child refugee
Emilio Aldecoa in 1947. Having initially spent several weeks waiting for a
work permit, he signed the following year for
£400,000 as part of the deal that took
Gary Lineker in the same direction; In a pre-match interview, he was praised by
Bill Nicholson, Tottenham's
double-winning manager of
1961. he added a
hat-trick in the
FA Cup quarter-final at
Manchester City, helping his team to a 4–2 win.
Spain national team manager
Javier Clemente made a rare foreign trip to monitor him, but he never earned a
cap.
Later years Nayim retired in 2000, after a stint with Spanish
Segunda División side
CD Logroñés. He took up coaching afterwards, managing
Atlético Ceuta and serving as assistant to
AD Ceuta; Nayim returned to his hometown in May 2016, to become sporting director at
AD Ceuta FC. ==Personal life==