Jordi Aláez Peña (born 23 January 1998) is an Andorran 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

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 ...

for Primera Divisió club

FC Santa Coloma FC Santa Coloma is an Andorran football team based in the village of Santa Coloma, in the parish of Andorra la Vella. The club currently plays in Primera Divisió, and is its current champion and most successful team with thirteen titles. It is ...

and the Andorra national team.

Playing career

Club career

Aláez quickly progressed through the youth ranks of

FC Andorra Futbol Club Andorra is a professional football club based in Andorra la Vella, Andorra, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. The club was founded in 1942 and currently plays its home fixtu ...

, a club based in

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...

but playing in the Spanish football league system. As part of the "juvenile" (U18) team, he helped them achieve a near perfect season (25 wins, 3 draws, 1 loss) in 2014–15 to achieve promotion to the third-tier. He was called up to the first squad (playing in the fifth-tier

Primera Catalana The Primera Catalana is the 6th tier of the Spanish football league system and the highest league in the autonomous community of Catalonia. The league was formed in 1991 to replace Regional Preferent as the first level of Catalonia and was split i ...

) before the start of the 2015–16 season. He made his debut less than a month after his 18th birthday, replacing Alexandre Martínez in the 79' of a 4-0 home win against UA Horta on 14 February 2016.

International career

Youth

Aláez made his debut for the Andorra under-17 national team in October 2013, playing all three matches in the 2014 Euro U17 qualifiers (against

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

, respectively). He was 15 years old. He subsequently captained Andorra U17 at the following year's qualifiers, recording one assist in three games as they failed to pass the group stage once again. He also appeared in five matches for the Andorra national under-19 team, three times in the 2015 Euro U19 qualifiers in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and twice in the 2016 Euro 19 qualifiers in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. His debut with the Andorra national under-21 team was on 26 March 2015, where he played the full 90 minutes in a 1-0 loss to the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

Senior

Aláez made his senior international debut for

by playing the full 90 minutes of a 0-0 draw in a friendly against

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

on 26 May 2016. Aláez was among the four "fresh faces" with no previous senior international experience that manager

Koldo Álvarez Jesús Luis "Koldo" Álvarez de Eulate Güergue (born 4 September 1970) is a former footballer who played as a goalkeeper, currently manager of Andorra. Playing career Born in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, Basque Country, Spain, Álvarez spent his ...

decided to include in the 18-man squad the day before the match, showing great confidence in the young players. He earned his second cap a week later, coming on as a 65' substitute for Alexandre Martínez during a 2-0 loss to

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...

National team statistics

International goals

:''Scores and results list Andorra's goal tally first.''

References

External links

* * *
Jordi Aláez
at LaPreferente.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alaez, Jordi 1998 births Living people People from Sant Julià de Lòria Andorran people of Spanish descent Andorran people of Catalan descent Andorran men's footballers Andorran beach soccer players Andorra men's international footballers Andorra men's youth international footballers Men's association football midfielders FC Andorra players Andorra men's under-21 international footballers