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 lea ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

for

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

club

IF Gnistan IF Gnistan (''Kipinä'' in Finnish; ''The Spark'' in English), commonly known as Gnistan, is a Finnish football club from the city of Helsinki, founded in 1924. The club is currently playing in the Veikkausliiga, the first tier of the Finnish le ...

Club career

Real Madrid

Born in

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

, Craninx joined

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

's La Fábrica in 2011, from UD Marbella. He made his senior debut with the C-team on 5 October 2014, starting in a 1–1

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

home draw against AD Unión Adarve. On 15 July 2015, Craninx renewed his contract and was promoted to the B-team in

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: 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 ...

, 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 competes in the Eredivisie, the top flig ...

, but was assigned to the reserve side in the

Tweede Divisie Tweede Divisie (; ) 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 between 1962 and 19 ...

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 sp ...

Molde

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

Molde Molde () is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town and the seat of Molde Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Pen ...

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

Norwegian Cup The Norwegian Football Cup () 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 tournament in the country. The tournament ...

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 is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...

on 26 May 2019. He made his debut in

UEFA competitions UEFA competitions (), 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 association football and futsal. Th ...

in Molde's 7–1 win over KR in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

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 (; ) is a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality and City status in Belgium, city of Wallonia located in the Liège Province, province of Liège, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Boncelles, Jemeppe-sur-M ...

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

CF Fuenlabrada

On 8 February 2023, Craninx signed for CF Fuenlabrada on a short-term contract until the end of the season.

Gnistan

On 17 December 2024, Finnish

club

announced the signing of Craninx on a 1+1-year deal, starting in January 2025

International career

Born in Spain, Craninx has played a total of 6 games for Belgium at youth international level.

Career statistics

Honours

Molde *

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

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 Primera Federación players Tweede Divisie players Eliteserien players Veikkausliiga players Real Madrid C footballers Real Madrid Castilla footballers FC Cartagena footballers Molde FK players R.F.C. Seraing (1922) players CF Fuenlabrada footballers Jong Sparta players IF Gnistan players Belgian expatriate men's footballers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Norway Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Finland Spanish expatriate men's footballers Spanish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Norway Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Finland Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Finland 21st-century Spanish sportsmen 21st-century Belgian sportsmen