Alejandro "Álex" Gálvez Jimena (born 6 June 1989) is a Spanish 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 ...

. Mainly a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, he can also play as a defensive midfielder.

Career

Early career

Born in

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

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 ...

, Gálvez played youth football for Albacete Balompié and

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or simply Villarreal, is a professional football club based in Villarreal, in the Castellón province of eastern Spain, th ...

. He was loaned by the latter to farm team

CD Onda Club Deportivo Onda is a Spanish football team based in Onda, Castellón, in the autonomous community of Valencia. Founded in 1950 it plays in Regional Preferente – Group 1, holding home games at ''Estadio La Serratella'', with a capacity of ...

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 ...

, in what was his senior debut. In the following two seasons, Gálvez played in

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 ...

with

CF Villanovense Club de Fútbol Villanovense is a Spanish football team based in Villanueva de la Serena, in the autonomous community of Extremadura. Founded in 1992 it plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 4, holding home matches at ''Estadio Romero Cuerda' ...

and

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting (although in an international context this can lead to confusion with Sporting Clube de Portugal) is a Spanish football club from Gijón, P ...

's reserves, being relegated on both occasions but reinstated in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Sporting Gijón

On 13 December 2011, Gálvez made his debut with Sporting's main squad in a

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footbal ...

match against

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, S.A.D. (, ca, Reial Club Deportiu Mallorca , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or just Mallorca is a Spanish professional football club based in Palma on the island of Majorca in ...

( 1–0 away win, 2–1 aggregate loss). The following 15 January, again as a starter and a

stopper Stopper may refer to: * Bung, a plug used to stop the opening of a container ** Laboratory rubber stopper, a specific type of bung * Plug (sanitation), used to stop a drainage outlet * Defender (association football), in soccer (association footba ...

, he made his first

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

appearance for the

Asturians Asturians ( ast, asturianos) are a Celtic-Romance ethnic group native to the autonomous community of Asturias, in the North-West of the Iberian Peninsula. Culture and society Heritage Asturians are directly descended from the Astures, who wer ...

, scoring the first goal of the game in an eventual 2–1 home victory over

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a association football, football club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, that competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, ...

Rayo Vallecano

Gálvez agreed to terms with Rayo Vallecano on 18 July 2012, on a two-year deal. He scored his first official goal for his new team on 20 October 2013, from a 30-metre free kick for the match's only at UD Almería. In late May 2013, the

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

outskirts club rejected a

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

2 million offer from

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

for Gálvez's playing rights.

Werder Bremen

On 13 May 2014, after consecutively helping Rayo retain their top-flight status,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

Gálvez signed a three-year contract with

SV Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

in Germany. For most of the first half of his first

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

he was deployed in

defensive midfield A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

by coach

Robin Dutt Robin Dutt (; born 24 January 1965) is a German football coach, executive and former player. He is the manager of Austrian club Wolfsberger AC. Early life Dutt was born and brought up in Germany, the son of a German mother and Indian Bengali fat ...

, but under the former's successor

Viktor Skrypnyk Viktor Anatoliyovych Skrypnyk ( uk, Віктор Анатолійович Скрипник; born 19 November 1969) is a Ukrainian former professional footballer and current manager of Vorskla Poltava. As a player, he helped Werder Bremen to the ...

he became a constant in the centre of defence, until injuries limited him to five appearances from January to May 2015. Continuing injury problems over the summer break proved detrimental to pre-season training for Gálvez, as he was mostly used as a backup for Assani Lukimya at the beginning of the 2015–16 campaign.

Eibar

On 3 August 2016, Gálvez agreed to a three-year deal with

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in eu, Eibar Kirol Elkartea) is a professional Spanish football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the team currently plays in the Segunda División, the s ...

in the Spanish top division. Mostly a backup option in his early spell, he was loaned to fellow league club

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Las Palmas, on the island of Gran Canaria in the autonomous community of Canary Islands. Founded on 22 August 1949, it plays in Segunda División, holding home games at the ...

on 29 December 2017. Gálvez terminated his contract on 30 August 2018.

Return to Rayo

On 31 August 2018, one day after becoming a free agent, Gálvez returned to former club Rayo Vallecano after agreeing to a one-year contract. He started in all his league appearances, scoring in a 2–1 away defeat to

Girona FC Girona Futbol Club, S.A.D. is a professional football club based in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Founded on 23 July 1930, it plays in La Liga, to which they gained promotion in the 2022 Segunda División play-offs. Girona holds its home matches at ...

in an eventual relegation as last.

Ibiza

On 22 July 2021, after two years abroad with Qatar SC, Gálvez signed for two seasons with second-tier newcomers UD Ibiza. He missed the first months of his first due to a

meniscus Meniscus may refer to: *Meniscus (anatomy), crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous structure that partly divides a joint cavity *Meniscus (liquid) The meniscus (plural: ''menisci'', from the Greek for "crescent") is the curve in the upper surface ...

injury, and was sent off twice shortly after returning.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Galvez, Alex 1989 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Granada Association football defenders Association football midfielders Association football utility players La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Villarreal CF C players CF Villanovense players Sporting de Gijón B players Sporting de Gijón players Rayo Vallecano players SD Eibar footballers UD Las Palmas players UD Ibiza players Bundesliga players SV Werder Bremen players Qatar Stars League players Qatar SC players Spanish expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Qatar Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Qatar