Alejandro "Álex" Gálvez Jimena (born 6 June 1989) 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 for

Recreativo de Huelva Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Huelva, Andalucia, Spain. Founded on 23 December 1889, they are the oldest football club in Spain, and currently play in , holding home ...

. Mainly a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

, he can also play as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

Career

Early career

Born in

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

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 ...

, Gálvez played youth football for

Albacete Balompié Albacete Balompié is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Albacete, in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Founded on 5 July 1939, it currently plays in Segunda División, the second tier of Spanish foo ...

and

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D., usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Villarreal, in the Province of Castellón, Castellón province of easte ...

. He was loaned by the latter to

farm team In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a Team sport, team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any s ...

CD Onda Club Deportivo Onda is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Onda, Castellón, in the autonomous community of Valencia (autonomous community), Valencia. Founded in 1921 it plays in , holding home games at ''Estadio La ...

in the

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 ...

, in what was his senior debut. In the following two seasons, Gálvez played 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 ...

with

CF Villanovense Club de Fútbol Villanovense is a Spanish football team based in Villanueva de la Serena, in the autonomous community of Extremadura. Founded in 1992 it plays in , holding home matches at ''Estadio Romero Cuerda'', with a capacity of 5,000 seats. ...

and

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting is a Spanish professional association football, football club from Gijón, Principality of Asturias. Founded on 1 July 1905, it plays in the ...

's reserves, being relegated on both occasions but reinstated in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Sporting Gijón

On 13 December 2011, Gálvez made his debut with Sporting's main squad in a

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

match against

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (, , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or RCD Mallorca, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Palma de Mallorca, ...

( 1–0 away win, 2–1 aggregate loss). The following 15 January, again as a starter and a stopper, he made his first

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 ...

appearance for the

Asturians Asturians () are a Romance ethnic group native to the autonomous community of Asturias, in the North-West of the Iberian Peninsula. Culture and society Heritage The Asturians have Celtic ( Astures) and Latin cultural origins, most notably f ...

, scoring the first goal of the game in an eventual 2–1 home victory over

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, who compete in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system, following the ...

Rayo Vallecano

Gálvez agreed to terms with

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in the Villa de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish foot ...

on 18 July 2012, on a two-year deal. He scored his first official goal for his new team on 20 October 2013, from a 30-metre

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...

for the match's only at

UD Almería Unión Deportiva Almería, S.A.D. () is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish professional football club based in Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded on 26 July 1989 and known as ''Almería Club de Fútbol'' until 2001 ...

. In late May 2013, the

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 ...

outskirts club rejected a

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

2 million offer from

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

for Gálvez's playing rights.

Werder Bremen

On 13 May 2014, after consecutively helping Rayo retain their top-flight status,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

Gálvez signed a three-year contract with

SV Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

in Germany. For most of the first half of his first

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

he was deployed in

defensive midfield In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

by coach

Robin Dutt Robin Dutt (; born 24 January 1965) is a German football coach, executive and former player. He has managed many German clubs and secured promotion for SC Freiburg, returning them to the Bundesliga. Early life Dutt was born in Köln-Lindenthal, ...

, but under the former's successor

Viktor Skrypnyk Viktor Anatoliyovych Skrypnyk (; born 19 November 1969) is a Ukrainian professional football manager and former player who has been the manager of Ukrainian Premier League club Zorya Luhansk since 2025. As a player, he played as a left-back and h ...

he became a constant in the centre of defence, until injuries limited him to five appearances from January to May 2015. Continuing injury problems over the summer break proved detrimental to pre-season training for Gálvez, as he was mostly used as a backup for Assani Lukimya at the beginning of the 2015–16 campaign.

Eibar

On 3 August 2016, Gálvez agreed to a three-year deal with

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in ) is a Spanish football league teams, Spanish professional football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the men’s te ...

in the Spanish top division. Mostly a backup option in his early spell, he was loaned to fellow league club

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas S.A.D. is a professional association football, football club based in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. The club will compete in Segunda División, the 2nd division in the Spanish football league syst ...

on 29 December 2017. Gálvez terminated his contract on 30 August 2018.

Return to Rayo

On 31 August 2018, one day after becoming a free agent, Gálvez returned to former club Rayo Vallecano after agreeing to a one-year contract. He started in all his league appearances, scoring in a 2–1 away defeat to

Girona FC Girona Futbol Club, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. ( ) is a Spanish professional Football team, football club based in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Founded on 23 July 1930, the team plays in La Liga, to which they gained promotion in the 2022 ...

in an eventual relegation as last.

Ibiza

On 22 July 2021, after two years abroad with

Qatar SC Qatar Sports Club () is a sports club based in Doha, Qatar. It is best known for its football team which competes in the Qatar Stars League. The club was founded in 1961 with the merger of two Qatari football clubs, Al-Oruba and Al-Nasour. They ...

, Gálvez signed for two seasons with second-tier newcomers

UD Ibiza Unión Deportiva Ibiza is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish professional football club based in the town of Ibiza (town), Ibiza, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. Founded in 2015, it pla ...

. He missed the first months of his first due to a

meniscus Meniscus may refer to: *Meniscus (anatomy), crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous structure that partly divides a joint cavity *Meniscus (liquid) In physics (particularly liquid statics), the meniscus (: menisci, ) is the curve in the upper sur ...

injury, and was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

twice shortly after returning.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Galvez, Alex 1989 births Living people 21st-century Spanish sportsmen Spanish men's footballers Footballers from Granada Men's association football central defenders Men's association football midfielders Men's association football utility players La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Primera Federación players Villarreal CF C players CF Villanovense players Sporting Atlético players Sporting de Gijón players Rayo Vallecano players SD Eibar footballers UD Las Palmas players UD Ibiza players Recreativo de Huelva players Bundesliga players SV Werder Bremen players Qatar Stars League players Qatari Second Division players Qatar SC players Al-Khor SC players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Qatar Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Qatar