Alejandro "Álex" Marco Craninx Joostens (born 21 October 1995) is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

, for

CF Fuenlabrada Club de Fútbol Fuenlabrada, S.A.D. is a football club based in Fuenlabrada, Community of Madrid, Spain, that currently competes in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, the third tier of the Spanish league system. It was founded in 1975. It holds ...

. Born in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, he has represented

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

at youth level.

Club career

Real Madrid

Born in

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

, Craninx joined

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

's La Fábrica in 2011, from

UD Marbella Marbella Fútbol Club, formerly known as Unión Deportiva Marbella, is a Spanish football team based in Marbella, the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1997 it currently plays in Tercera Federación – Group 9 (the 5th level of the ...

. He made his senior debut with the C-team on 5 October 2014, starting in a 1–1

Tercera División Tercera División ( en, Third Division) was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segunda División'', and the semi-professional ''Segunda Di ...

home draw against

AD Unión Adarve Agrupación Deportiva Unión Adarve is a Spanish football team, from the Barrio del Pilar district of Fuencarral-El Pardo, in the city of Madrid, Community of Madrid. It was founded in 1961. History Unión Adarve was the result of a merger of tw ...

. On 15 July 2015, Craninx renewed his contract and was promoted to

the B-team The B-Team was a professional wrestling tag team in WWE, composed of Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel. The team are former one-time WWE Raw Tag Team Champions. They also formerly performed as The Social Outcasts and The Miztourage from 2016 to 2018 be ...

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

, but acted as a backup to Alfonso Herrero and Carlos Abad during his spell.

Sparta Rotterdam

On 25 July 2017, Craninx signed for

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently compete in the Eredivisie, the top flight ...

, but was assigned to the reserve side in the

Tweede Divisie Tweede Divisie ( en, Second Division) is the highest amateur (and historically the lowest professional) football league in the Netherlands. It was established in 1956, together with the Eredivisie and the Eerste Divisie. Between 1956 and 1960 and b ...

Cartagena

On 31 January 2018, Craninx returned to Spain after agreeing to a six-month contract with third division side

FC Cartagena Fútbol Club Cartagena, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Cartagena, in the Region of Murcia, Spain. Founded in 1995 it currently plays in Segunda División, holding home games at ''Estadio Cartagonova'', with a capacity of 15,105 spe ...

Molde

On 27 July 2018, Craninx agreed a two and a half year deal with Norwegian club

Molde Molde () is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Peninsula, surrounding the Fannefjord and Moldefjord. The administrative centre of the m ...

. He made his first team debut in the Molde's

Norwegian Cup The Norwegian Football Cup ( no, Norgesmesterskapet i fotball for herrer) is the main knockout cup competition in Norwegian football. It is run by the Football Association of Norway and has been contested since 1902, making it the oldest football ...

first round match against Eide/Omegn on 1 May 2019, a game Molde won 5−0. He got his league debut on 26 May in Molde's 1−2 loss against

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Tromsø (city), city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies ...

on 26 May 2019. He made his debut in

UEFA competitions UEFA competitions (french: competitions de l'UEFA), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur asso ...

in Molde's 7–1 win over KR in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

first qualifying round on 11 July 2019. He played 14 games and kept a clean sheet in four of them in the club's title-winning 2019 season. Craninx got 25 appearances in all competitions. On 3 December 2019, Molde announced that Craninx had agreed to an extension of his contract that will keep him at the club until the end of the 2023 season. On 31 January 2022, Craninx was loaned to

Seraing Seraing (; wa, Serè) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Boncelles, Jemeppe-sur-Meuse, Ougrée, and Seraing. With Liège, Herstal, Saint ...

until the end of the season. On 31 January 2023, Craninx was released by Molde.

CF Fuenlabrada

On 8 February 2023, Craninx signed for

on a short-term contract until the end of the season.

International career

Craninx has played a total of 6 games for Belgium at youth international level.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Molde *

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Craninx, Álex 1995 births Living people Footballers from Málaga Belgian men's footballers Belgium men's youth international footballers Spanish men's footballers Spanish people of Belgian descent Men's association football goalkeepers Segunda División B players Tercera División players Real Madrid C footballers Real Madrid Castilla footballers FC Cartagena footballers Molde FK players R.F.C. Seraing (1922) players CF Fuenlabrada footballers Belgian expatriate men's footballers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Spanish expatriate men's footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Norway