Alba Merino Sánchez (born 15 May 1989) is a Spanish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

midfielder 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 ...

who plays for Deportivo La Coruña of Spain's

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

. As of July 2021, she holds the record for being the youngest footballer to feature in Spain's

Primera División Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

. She also scored Deportivo's first ever goal in the Primera División.

Career

Merino is originally from

Guadiana The Guadiana River (, also , , ), or Odiana, is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalusia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from the e ...

. Playing for

Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

, in 2003, she became the youngest player to feature in the top tier of women's football in Spain and, as of July 2021, she remains the holder of this record. In 2007, her transfer from Puebla to

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

was announced. At Atlético, she played alongside

Jennifer Hermoso Jennifer Hermoso Fuentes (born 9 May 1990) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Liga MX Femenil club CF Pachuca and for the Spain women's national team. She is the all-time top scorer for both Barcelona and Spain. Hermoso devel ...

and was the team's top goalscorer in the 2008–09 season. In the summer of 2018, she transferred from Santa Teresa to Deportivo La Coruña. While playing for Deportivo, in the club's 2018–19 season, she participated in their promotion to the

, scoring 17 goals in 21 league games. Merino would go on to score Deportivo's first ever goal in the top tier of Spanish football, scoring a header against

Espanyol Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona (; "Royal Spanish Sports Club of Barcelona"), commonly known as Espanyol, is a professional sports club based in Barcelona, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish football league sy ...

after a shot from Noelia Villegas was adjudged to have not crossed the line. She also featured in 18 out of the team's first 21 fixtures in the 2019–20 season. Following Deportivo's relegation back to the

in the following season, Deportivo renewed Merino's contract for one more season, indicating their intention to build the team around Merino.

References

External links

Profile
at Deportivo La Coruña * 1989 births Living people Spanish women's footballers Liga F players Levante UD Femenino players Atlético Madrid Femenino players Santa Teresa CD players Footballers from Badajoz Women's association football midfielders Deportivo de La Coruña (women) players {{Spain-women-footy-bio-stub