A recent addition to Catalan paper Mundo Deportivo has been a series of youth profiles written by Oriol Domènech. In early December, his profile of Sergi Samper appeared here on totalBarça. Now it’s the turn of Juvenil A left back Alejandro Grimaldo (16), one of La Masia’s promising players who is currently speeding through the youth ranks, having debuted for the first team and Barça B this season. The original article can be found here.

Alejandro Grimaldo (Valencia, born on September 20, 1995) is the third youngest player to debut with the first team in the history of FC Barcelona. This past 9th of August he made his first appearance, in the final of the Copa Catalunya against Espanyol that was played at the Nou Estadi of Tarragona, at 15 years, 10 months, and 20 days. He passed Leo Messi and Bojan Krkic and only remains behind the legendary Paulino Alcántara, who also made his debut in the Campeonato de Catalunya at 15 years, 4 months and 18 days, scoring a ‘hat trick’ against Català, and Haruna Babangida, who at 15 years, 9 months, and 11 days played in a pre-season friendly against the modest Dutch side AGOVV.

Grimaldo is a bullet. On the pitch and in life. Because 26 days after that unforgettable day, he also debuted in the Segunda División, away at Cartagena, where he put on an exhibition along with another promising youngster, Rafinha, leading to a convincing win by the reserves (0-4). As a left back, his current position, he played some extraordinary minutes in the second half, overflowing with speed and skill. After suffering a violent tackle by Josemi, a former Liverpool player, who is more than twice his age (31 years old), and who was sent off for his anti-sporting action, Grimaldo initiated the play for the 0-3 of Rafinha with two spectacular sidesteps.

Although many saw him continuing with the reserves, he returned to Juvenil A, his team this season although it’s his first year, the same with Dongou, Samper, Bagnack, and Sandro, all of them from the sensational generation of 1995, that also includes Toral and Bellerin, who in the summer signed for Arsenal, and Pol Garcia, who went to Juventus. A generation that this past season won absolutely everything, the Nike Premier Cup in Manchester, the Liga and Campeonato de Catalunya, and the prestigious MIC.

Grimaldo’s story at Barça began in 2008, when Albert Benaiges discovered him playing in the Valencia shirt, where he started as a player in the year 2000. Not as a wing back, but as a ‘mediapunta’, a ‘10’. Benaiges convinced his family and Alex entered Barça’s La Masia, as his parents took up residence in Barcelona. He began in the Infantil A of Andrés Carrasco, afterwards passing through the Cadetes, A (with García Pimienta) and B (Víctor Sánchez), and this year is part of Juvenil A without having gone through Juvenil B. His stand out qualities include his verticality, his ability of getting forward to the end line, with dodges or one-twos, and his good crosses, but in defense he still has some shortcomings that minimize his power and speed. With Òscar Garcia, he is in good hands.

Image Credit: JI Paredes (Sport)