Alejandro "Álex" Fernández Iglesias (born 15 October 1992) 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 lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

club

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

Club career

Real Madrid

Born in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, Fernández 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 youth system from neighbouring

RSD Alcalá Real Sociedad Deportiva Alcalá is a Spanish football team based in Alcalá de Henares in the Community of Madrid. Founded in 1929 it plays in Tercera División RFEF – Group 7, holding home matches at ''Estadio Municipal del Val'', with a capac ...

, aged 12. In 2010, he started appearing with

Real Madrid Castilla Real Madrid Castilla Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team that plays in . It is Real Madrid's reserve team. They play their home games at the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium with a capacity of 6,000 seats. Reserve teams in Spain play in the ...

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 ...

and, in July of that year, he was called by first-team coach

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

to a preseason tour in the United States. He made his unofficial debut on 5 August in a friendly against

Club América Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Club América, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City. Nicknamed ''Las Águilas'' (The Eagles), it competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football ...

(3–2 win), with his brother Nacho also making his first appearance that day. Fernández made his league debut with the B side on 29 August 2010, playing 87 minutes in a 3–2 home win against

Coruxo FC Coruxo Fútbol Club is a Spanish football club based in the parish of Coruxo, Vigo, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Founded in 1930 it plays in , holding home matches at '' O Vao'', with a capacity of 1,500 spectators. The association ...

. On 3 October he scored his first goal, contributing to the 3–0 home victory over AD Cerro de Reyes. He finished his first season with 32 games and two goals, as the team fell short in the promotion playoffs. On 6 March 2011, Fernández made his

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

debut, playing the last minute of a 3–1 defeat of

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Spain, Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spani ...

. He contributed 35 appearances in the 2011–12 campaign – playoffs included – with Castilla returning to the second tier after five years.

Espanyol

Fernández left Real Madrid in August 2013, by mutual consent. He signed shortly after with

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

in the top level, appearing in 30 competitive matches in his first year but starting in only five. On 28 January 2015, Espanyol loaned Fernández to

HNK Rijeka Hrvatski nogometni klub Rijeka (), commonly referred to as HNK Rijeka, is a Croatian professional association football club from the city of Rijeka. HNK Rijeka competes in Croatia's top division, Croatian First Football League, Supersport HNL, o ...

until the end of the season. On 18 August, he joined

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

on loan, with a view to a permanent move at the end of the campaign. He scored his first goal for them on 19 January 2016, in a 5–2 home win against

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

in the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

Elche and Cádiz

On 31 August 2016, shortly after terminating his contract with Espanyol, due to expire the following year, Fernández signed for

Elche CF Elche Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional football club based in Elche, Province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community, Spain. Founded in 1923, the club will compete in La Liga for the 2025–26 season, holding home matches at ...

. The following 7 August, after suffering relegation, he agreed to a two-year deal at fellow

team

Cádiz CF Cádiz Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. is a Spanish professional football club based in Cádiz, Andalusia. Founded in 1910, the club competes in Segunda División, holding home games at Nuevo Mirandilla, with a seating capacity of 20,724. Salvadoran ...

. With a total of 11 goals, Fernández was his team's top scorer in 2019. He scored 13 during the season from 41 appearances, in a return to the top flight as runners-up. In 2020–21, Fernández contributed four goals – bettered in the team only by

Álvaro Negredo Álvaro Negredo Sánchez (; born 20 August 1985) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a striker. Nicknamed ''La fiera de Vallecas'' (The beast of Vallecas), he amassed totals of 361 matches and 128 goals over 12 La Liga s ...

's eight – as the

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 ...

n side stayed up in 12th place; he missed the final two months with a right knee injury. On 6 June 2022, he extended his contract until 2025.

Personal life

Fernández's older brother, Nacho, is also a footballer. A defender, he also graduated from Real Madrid's academy but remained there while Álex moved on. Their physical appearance is quite dissimilar, owing to Álex's

red hair Red hair, also known as ginger hair, is a human hair color found in 2–6% of people of northern Europe, Northern or Northwestern European ancestry and lesser frequency in other populations. It is most common in individuals Zygosity#Homozy ...

Career statistics

Honours

Real Madrid Castilla *

: 2011–12 Spain U19 *

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-19, is an annual football competition, contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain is the most successful team in this competit ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Individual *UEFA European Under-19 Championship Golden Player: 2011

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez, Alex 1992 births Living people 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Madrid Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players RSD Alcalá players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players RCD Espanyol footballers Elche CF players Cádiz CF players Croatian Football League players HNK Rijeka players English Football League players Reading F.C. players Spain men's youth international footballers Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Croatia Expatriate men's footballers in England Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Spanish expatriate sportspeople in England