Alejandro Balde Martínez (born 18 October 2003) 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 ...

who plays as a

left-back 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 ...

for Barcelona Atlètic and the Spain national team.

Club career

Born in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

, to a Guinean father and a Dominican mother, Balde joined

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Found ...

in 2011 at the age of eight after coming up through ranks at

RCD 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 s ...

. In July 2021, he signed a contract renewal with Barcelona until 2024 with a release clause of 500 million euros. Balde impressed during pre-season in the summer 2021, and began the new campaign as

Jordi Alba Jordi Alba Ramos (born 21 March 1989) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a left-back for La Liga club Barcelona and the Spain national team. He is often regarded as one of the best left-backs of his generation. Alba started his ...

's primary back-up at Camp Nou. He sat on the bench for the opening match against Real Sociedad and the next game against Athletic Bilbao.On 14 September 2021, he played his first official match for Barcelona's first team replacing Alba in the 74th minute of a 3–0 loss to Bayern Munich in the group stage of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. From the start of 2022–23 season, Balde was given a more prominent role by coach Xavi, starting in more league matches than Jordi Alba and receiving more minutes in important matches.

International career

Balde received a surprised call up to the Spain national team two days before the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, as fellow left-back José Gayà had injured his ankle in training. On 23 November 2022, he made his first international appearance in a 7–0 win against Costa Rica, substituting

in the 64th minute.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Barcelona * Supercopa de España: 2022–23

References

External links

*
FC Barcelona official profile
2003 births Living people Footballers from Barcelona Spanish footballers Spain youth international footballers Spain under-21 international footballers Spain international footballers Spanish sportspeople of African descent Spanish people of Bissau-Guinean descent Spanish people of Dominican Republic descent Sportspeople of Dominican Republic descent Association football defenders La Liga players Primera Federación players Segunda División B players FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Barcelona players 2022 FIFA World Cup players {{Spain-footy-defender-stub