Carles Aleñá Castillo (born 5 January 1998) 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

central 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

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. They compete in La Liga, the top tier of the Football in Spain, Spanish football. The team has pla ...

Club career

Barcelona

Born in

Mataró Mataró () is the capital and largest town of the Maresme county in Catalonia, Spain. It is located on the Costa del Maresme, Maresme coast, to the south of Costa Brava, between Cabrera de Mar and Sant Andreu de Llavaneres, north-east of Barcel ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, Aleñá moved to

's youth system,

La Masia La Masia de Can Planes, usually shortened to La Masia (; ), is FC Barcelona's youth academy. It includes more than 300 young players and has been an instrumental factor in Barcelona's European success, producing several world class players and ...

, in 2005 at the age of 7, after a successful trial. Highly rated by the club, he made his debut with the reserves on 29 August 2015, coming on as a late substitute for

David Babunski David Babunski (; born 1 March 1994) is a Macedonian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder. A product of FC Barcelona's La Masia, he played for their reserves before transferring to Red Star Belgrade in January 2016, win ...

in a 0–0

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 ...

home draw against Pobla de Mafumet. On 24 November 2015, Aleñá scored a spectacular goal in a

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

game against

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

. He scored his first senior goal on 19 December, in a ''Barcelona B'' 2–4 away loss to Eldense. Aleñá was first included in Barcelona's main squad on 10 February 2016, remaining an unused substitute in their 1–1

away Away may refer to: Film and television * ''Away'' (2016 film), a British film directed by David Blair * ''Away'' (2019 film), a Latvian animated silent film by Gints Zilbalodis * Away (2025 film), a drama film by Gerard Oms * ''Away'' (TV series ...

draw against

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

in the second leg of 2015-16 Copa del Rey semi-finals. He made his first team debut on 30 November of that year, starting and scoring the equalizer in an away draw against Hércules for the same scoreline, in the same competition. Aleñá 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 on 2 April 2017, coming on as a second-half substitute for

Ivan Rakitić Ivan Rakitić (; born 10 March 1988) is a Croatian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for HNL club Hajduk Split. Rakitić started his professional career at Basel and spent two seasons with them before he was signed by Schalke ...

in a 4–1 away routing of

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 ...

. On 28 June, he signed a three-year professional deal with Barcelona, including a release clause of €75 million. In July 2018, he was nominated for the Golden Boy award. On 4 December 2018, Aleñá was officially promoted to the first team, two days after scoring his first league goal for Barcelona against

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 ...

Loan to Betis

On 28 December 2019, Barcelona announced that they had reached an agreement with Real Betis for the loan transfer of Aleñá until the end of the season. He played 19 games for the team from

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

, and scored in a 3–0 home win over

Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Pamplona, Navarre. It was founded on 24 October 1920 and plays in La Liga, the top division of Spanish ...

on 8 July.

Loan and permanent transfer to Getafe

On 6 January 2021, it was announced that Barcelona reached an agreement with

Getafe Getafe () is a municipalities in Spain, municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city c ...

over a loan move for Aleñá until the end of the season. On 27 February, he scored his first goal for Getafe after coming off the bench in the final minutes of his team's 3–0 win against

. On 10 July 2021, Getafe reached an agreement with Barcelona to permanently sign Aleñá for five seasons. ''Barça'' also reserved the right to 50% of any future sale of the player, a buy back option plus first right of refusal on any offer.

Loan to Alavés

On 3 February 2025, Aleñá moved on loan to Alavés until the end of the

2024–25 La Liga The 2024–25 La Liga, also known as La Liga EA Sports due to sponsorship reasons, was the 94th season of La Liga, Spain's premier football competition. It commenced on 15 August 2024 and concluded on 25 May 2025. Real Madrid were the defending ...

season.

Personal life

Aleñá's father Francesc was also a footballer; a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

, he played for several clubs in the 1980s and 1990s.

Career statistics

Honours

Barcelona *

: 2018–19 *

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 ...

: 2016–17, 2017–18 Individual * 2015 UEFA European Under-17 Championship Team of the Tournament

References

External links

Profile
at the Getafe CF website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alena, Carles 1998 births Living people Footballers from Mataró Spanish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Barcelona players Real Betis players Getafe CF footballers Deportivo Alavés players Spain men's youth international footballers Spain men's under-21 international footballers Catalonia men's international footballers 21st-century Spanish sportsmen