The Wonderkids of La Masia #3

Carles Aleña — Spain

Info

Birthday: 05.01.1998 (16 years old)

Position: Central midfielder

Nationality: Spanish

Born in: Mataró, Catalonia

Been at Barça since: 2006

Aleña

“Wearing this shirt with this crest and defending these colours is an honour and we all feel privileged. Maybe one day we can be part of Barça’s first team and contribute to this club’s grandeur.”

This was what a young Carles Aleña had to say in front of former president Sandro Rosell and around 300 boys and girls at La Masia, showing his Barça spirit.

That’s the kind of player he is — a leader, a capitá. Aleña is, as mentioned in the previous two editions of this series, a part of the incredibly talented trio of the 1998 age group: Carles Aleña, Ayoub Abou and Lee Seung Woo. A trio which we will hopefully hear a lot about in the next few years.

While not being incredibly fast, Aleña has great playmaking abilities, good ball control, defending abilities, and a stunning left foot. On top of that, he’s a natural leader, being the captain of every single bracket at La Masia since he was with the Benjamin A side (U-10) a couple of years after he joined the Barcelona cantera. A very well rounded midfielder, to say the least.

Grown up in the city of Mataró, in one of Catalonia’s largest regions, Maresme, Aleña has been a Barcelonista since the beginning, with his family being Barça fans, too.

When he was younger, Aleña was very small and weak, but he has hit a abnormal growth spurt in the last couple of years and now he has gotten a great physique, well rounded enough to cope with opposition players in his age and also against players one or two years older than him. Something he showed last year when he was picked for Juvenil B (U-18) games towards the end of the season, despite being eligible for Cadet A (U-17).

He is as they say in Spain, a todocampista, a player for every position on the pitch. Of course you shouldn’t take this literally, but in other words, Aleña is a very, very complete player. He can dictate the play and play the inch-perfect pass like Xavi, he can get back and defend like Busquets, he can instantly change pace and create a counter attack like Iniesta, and he can score and assist goals like Fabregas. Furthermore he is also a good header of the ball and he has a great long shot as well. Mixing all this together with great leadership abilities, and you have yourself a fine talent. That is just what Carles Aleña is. A fine talent and a true todocampista.

Wanted by others and mentioned in the media

To no surprise, Aleña has in the last few years been wanted by several English teams, such as Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal who have all been circling aroundLa Masia for many years now, trying to scoop some Barcelona talents, succeding to quite a lot over the past 10 years. Hopefully he won’t leave Barça, and seeing that he has already rejected the usual offers coming in from English clubs before signing his first contract with Barça after his 16th birthday, he seems to know where his heart is. It looks like he’ll stay in the club for many years to come.

He has already been mentioned by the big Catalan paper Mundo Deportivo in an article, where they praise his talent and even compare him with Diego Maradona. Mostly because of his physique and curly hair, but also because of his playing style. Aleña is just more of an all round midfielder, while Maradona focused on attacking. They wrote that with his peronality, being outgoing, open and friendly, it isn’t any surprise that he has been the captain of almost every team he has played for, both at Barça and with Spain’s youth national teams.

Star player

While he played at Alevin A (U-13), he was a well known name in the tournaments around Spain and he was also the star player at the Torneo de Estepona in 2010, where Barça won against Real Madrid after a penalty shoot-out, after a 1-1 draw in ordinary time. Despite playing left wing for the majority of that tournament, Aleña scored 6 goals, earning him the title as the player of the tournament.

The next season at Infantil B (U-14), Aleña played an important role against Real Madrid in the final of the Torneo de Arona, which they won again after a penalty shoot-out, after a 0-0 draw between the two teams.

With 8 goals in the 11-12 season with Infantil A (U-15), Aleña helped his team to win the Infantil league in Spain, and afterwards the team won the prestigious Lennart Johansson Cup in Sweden after they beat Red Star Belgrade with 2-0 in the final. Furthermore, he scored a beautiful free kick goal against Atletico Madrid in a tournament final during the same season.

Last season he played with Cadet A (U-17), but because of his tremendous performances, he was promoted to Juvenil B (U-18) in the last games of the season, and on his debut, he bagged himself a goal. In the remaining league games, he started the majority of them, and while I was in Barcelona, I saw Juvenil B’s final league match against Cornella. Both me and my friend, who travelled with me, were very impressed with Aleña, especially because of his ability to dictate the game the way he did against opponents one or two years older than him.

This year Aleña has been the captain for Juvenil B, and despite the team lying on 3rd place with 10 points behind the leaders from Espanyol, Aleña has been well playing this season, scoring 9 goals so far for club and country. During pre-season, he was also the top scorer in the Michalovce Cup with 5 goals but unfortunately for him and Juvenil B, they only managed to get 3rd place. Furthermore during pre-season Aleña got the MVP title in the Wospac Cup.

Despite being eligible for Juvenil B this season, he has been registered in Juvenil A’s (U-19) UEFA Youth League squad for the knockout stages which starts in February. And with Wilfrid Kaptoum probably out for the rest of the season, Aleña could come in handy for Jordi Vinyals if he is in need for a midfielder.

Next year Aleña will be promoted to Juvenil A where he will most likely form the midfield with Ayoub Abou. A partnership which should be very exciting to follow, as I mentioned in my piece on Ayoub.

For Spain, Aleña has been a key figure as well. He started with the U-16's last season, but after some very impressive games in friendlies including one against Germany, U-17 coach Albert Celades decided to include Aleña in the U-17 squad after the team was eliminated from the qualifiers for the 2015 U-17 Euro’s in Malta. Right now Aleña is still with Spain U-17, preparing for some friendlies against Italy later this month.

With Carles Aleña’s talent, physique, maturity, and ability to score and assist goals, he is definitely a player worth remembering in the next few years. Hopefully he’ll develop in to a great first team player. He definitely seems to have the potential.

Videos

Goal vs. Atletico in a cup final with Infantil A

Goal vs. Valencia in a cup final

In the Alkass International Cup

Goal against Rubi last season in his debut for Juvenil B

Some touches of his in Spain U-17's 2–0 win against Germany

His goal and assist in Spain U-17's 4–5 loss against Belgium.

His goal against Bellvitge

His skill during training with Spain U-17