Alberto Baldé Almánzar (born 21 March 2002) 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

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for

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Sports Direct Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and Irish Premiership colloquially, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northern Ireland Football L ...

side

Loughgall Loughgall ( ; ) is a small village, townland (of 131 acres) and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the historic Barony (Ireland), baronies of Armagh (barony), Armagh and Oneilland West. It had a ...

. Born in Spain and raised in Northern Ireland, he plays for the Dominican Republic national team.

Early life

Baldé was 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 ...

, Spain to a Bissau-Guinean father and an Afro-Dominican mother. He moved to Northern Ireland with his mother at a young age.

Club career

Baldé joined the youth academy of the Northern Ireland club

Portadown Portadown ( ) is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is based on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population ...

at the age of 12 when he knew no English, and gained national attention as the focus of a

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advertisement highlighting how his coaches used

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to communicate with him. At 15, he became their youngest ever goalscorer in a 2–1

NIFL Championship The Northern Ireland Football League Championship (known as the Playr-Fit Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the second level of the Northern Ireland Football League, the national football league in Northern Ireland. Clubs in the Championsh ...

win over Knockbreda. He joined Middlesbrough's reserves in 2018. He briefly joined non-league club Pickering Town on loan in November 2021. He was released by Middlesbrough when his contract ended in June 2022, and rejoined Portadown.

International career

Baldé is a youth international for the Northern Ireland U15s and Northern Ireland U16s in 2017. He was called up to the Dominican Republic national team for matches in June 2022. He debuted with the Dominican Republic in a 3–2

CONCACAF Nations League The CONCACAF Nations League (, ) is an association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its secondary continental tournament for men's senior national teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The tournament takes pla ...

loss to

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

on 5 June 2022, coming on as a substitute in the 67th minute.

References

External links

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EverythingForFootball Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Balde, Alberto 2002 births Living people Footballers from Madrid Dominican Republic men's footballers Dominican Republic men's international footballers Spanish emigrants to the United Kingdom Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland men's youth international footballers Spanish men's footballers Dominican Republic people of Bissau-Guinean descent Sportspeople of Bissau-Guinean descent People from Northern Ireland of Dominican Republic descent Sportspeople of Dominican Republic descent People from Northern Ireland of Bissau-Guinean descent Black British sportsmen Spanish people of Dominican Republic descent Spanish people of Bissau-Guinean descent Men's association football midfielders Middlesbrough F.C. players Pickering Town F.C. players Portadown F.C. players NIFL Premiership players Immigrants to Northern Ireland 21st-century Spanish sportsmen 21st-century British sportsmen 21st-century Dominican Republic sportsmen NIFL Championship players Loughgall F.C. players