Carles Alena

Carles Castillo Alena is a professional footballer playing for Getafe as a central midfielder. He was born in bustling Mataro, Spain on January 5, 1998. His father was also a professional footballer playing the forward position for several clubs.

Alena started playing football at a very young age. At age 7, he moved to La Masia, Barcelona’s youth football club for his training. He was a highly-rated trainee by the club and by 2015 and at the age of 17, he made his debut as one of the reserves of FC Barcelona. During the same year, he scored a goal while his team participated in the UEFA Youth League. Furthermore, Alena was included in the main squad of Barcelona in February 2016 and by 2017, he made his La Liga debut. In the same year, he signed a 3-year professional contract with Barcelona. The following year, he was nominated for the Golden Boy Award as well as promoted to the first team. This promotion happened two days after making his first goal for Barcelona. In December of 2019, he was part of a loan transfer to Real Betis. He was able to play a total of 19 games for the team.

In January of 2021, Barcelona made an agreement with Getafe to loan Alena until the end of the season. By February of the same year, Alena made his first goal for Getafe during the final minutes of the game against Valencia. In July 2021, Getafe made another agreement with Barcelona that allowed for Alena to be with Getafe permanently for five seasons.

In addition to being part of Barcelona and Getafe football clubs, Alena was also part of Spain’s national team. In 2013, he played 3 games in Spain Under 16. In 2014 and 2015, he was able to play a total of 16 games and scored 3 goals in Spain’s Under 17 Tournament. In the 2015-2017 seasons, he played a total of 13 games and earned 2 goals. His last game was in 2019 when he took part in Spain Under 21 and played for 3 games.

Career Honors:

• 2018-2019 La Liga
• 2016-2017; 2017-2018 Copa del Rey