Jordi Alba

Jordi Alba is a FC Barcelona defender. He was born on March 21, 1989 in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain.

Jordi’s youth career featured the FC Barcelona academy at an early stage. During several years he practiced there and later joined the UE Cornellà youth system. The latter academy’s level was lower but Alba got an opportunity to display his abilities more frequently in the youth team matches. During several years he played for the club’s academy before going on trial to the Valencia CF academy. The young defender was included in the youth team which he never left before getting an invitation to join the first team.

In the summer of 2007, Jordi signed his first ever professional contract with Valencia CF. In the beginning, the young defender had to join the Valencia CF reserve team to obtain the necessary experience and game practice. After a year of successful displays the club made a decision to include the young footballer in the club’s first team where he began to appear occasionally in the starting line-up. However, in 2008, soon after joining the club’s first team Jordi was loaned according to the managerial decision. Alba’s temporary club for the 2008/09 season was Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona. Throughout the season Jordi played in club’s every match and scored as well. Head coach built the young defender’s capacity by entrusting him with the position of the club’s main defender in 37 matches of the season.

The loan over, Jordi came back to Valencia CF were he continued his professional growth. Since 2009 Jordi played more than 70 matches for Valencia CF and scored 5 goals.

In 2006-2011 Jordi Alba played in 19 matches and scored 1 goal for the youth national teams ranging from U-19 to U-21.Since 2011 Jordi has been occasionally invited to the Spain national team.

In July 2012, Jordi Alba was officially signed by FC Barcelona after his magnificent victorious display at the UEFA Euro 2012 together with the Spain national team.