Athletic Bilbao Born in
Bilbao,
Biscay (
Basque Country), Rojo joined the
youth system of hometown club
Athletic Bilbao in his last year as a junior. He made his senior debut with neighbouring
SD Indautxu, being loaned twice to the
Segunda División team and being relegated as many times; he also played in this competition with
the former's reserves, again dropping down a level in the
1969–70 season after losing a play-off against
Villarreal CF. Rojo was definitely promoted to the first team aged 22, before the start of
the following campaign. By that time, his elder brother
José Francisco was already an established member of the line-up, and therefore the younger sibling was usually referred to administratively as
Rojo II. José Ángel made his debut in
La Liga on 24 January 1971 when he came on as a late
substitute in a 2–1 away victory over
Real Zaragoza, and he went on to start six further league games for
Ronnie Allen's team, adding
four appearances in the
Copa del Generalísimo. In
1971–72 Rojo began to feature regularly for Athletic, and made his
European debut against
Southampton, featuring the full 90 minutes in the
2–1 away loss in the
UEFA Cup.
The following season he contributed 37 appearances in all competitions, helping the side to ninth place in the league and victory in
the domestic cup, with the player taking the field in
the final in
Madrid, a 2–0 defeat of
CD Castellón. Over the next four campaigns, Rojo was a frequent midfield presence. In 1976, he was in the side and scored in both legs of a
Spanish Cup tie against
Sporting de Gijón in which the opponents overturned a 2–0 first leg deficit to win 5–2 at
San Mamés. Although the result itself was an embarrassment, it did prompt the club to pursue the opposition's star player
José Ignacio Churruca, who would play an important role for the team in the coming years. Rojo missed the first half of
1976–77 due to injury, scoring what was to be his final goal for the side in a 3–0 home win over
Hércules CF as they ended the league in third place. Athletic also
reached the final of the UEFA Cup, losing on the
away goals rule to
Juventus FC and with him appearing in the first leg, one of his five games in the run; he departed from
Bilbao at the age of 29, with overall totals of 186 matches and 12 goals.
Racing Santander After signing with
Racing de Santander in the summer of 1977, Rojo was a regular in his three seasons in
Cantabria, narrowly avoiding top-flight relegation in
the first (under
Nando Yosu) but
finishing second-bottom in the second. After nearly dropping down another level in
1979–80, he retired at 32. ==International career==