Seven players from the province of Castellón have been in a Villarreal B squad this season
The Yellows Academy continues to add players from Castellón to professional football. Carlo Adriano, Rodri Alonso, Marcos Sánchez, Jordi Ortega, Pau Navarro, Pau Cabanes and Ale Alcira are the seven players from the province of Castellón who have been called up to Villarreal B squads for the 2023/24 season. This is yet another example of the great work in the training of players from our youth academy.
Carlo Adriano, the midfielder born in Vila-real in 2001, as he was last season, has been one of the main players for Miguel Álvarez, participating in 36 of the, up to this moment, 41 matches with the Mini Submarine in the LALIGA HYPERMOTION. In 22 of them, moreover, he has completed 90 minutes.
Rodri Alonso, a native of Castellón de la Plana who has returned from a loan spell at Albacete, has had a similar importance to that of Carlo Adriano in terms of number of games, 33. However, this has not been the case in the number of minutes played this season, which have been almost half, 1,671.
Another of the other debutants in professional football has been Marcos Sánchez. The full-back from Vila-real made his debut for the B team against Sporting de Gijón on Matchday 14 and has played in three more games in the second division.
The last of the debutants in a call-up in professional football with a Villarreal B record is Jordi Ortega, from Grau de Castelló, who, however, was left without a team in the winter market and has not been able to have minutes at a professional level.
Pau Navarro, Pau Cabanes and Ale Alcira have also been included in Miguel Álvarez’s squad.
Pau Navarro, from La Vilavella but currently living in Nules, has had spells with the U19s (Juvenil A) and Villarreal C before finishing the season in full swing with the B team. The nineteen year old central defender, who has been converted into a midfielder during his time with the second team, made his debut in the second half against Tenerife in November and has ended up being an undisputed starter in the engine room. He has also been called up to the Spanish U19 team on two occasions.
Pau Cabanes, a native of Burriana, has also been with the U19s (Juvenil A) and Villarreal C throughout the season until, on the penultimate day of LALIGA HYPERMOTION, in the 2-2 draw against Albacete, he was called up for the first time by Miguel Álvarez and had the opportunity to make his debut in professional football, replacing Jorge Pascual and playing the last few minutes of the game. In February, he was also called up by the U19s but a radius injury prevented him from making his debut for La Roja.
The last player on the list is Alejandro Alcira, better known as Ale Alcira, born in the town of Benlloch, who also made his debut in a call-up with the reserve team in the recent visit of Albacete, but was unable to play.
All of them join a long list of Villarreal CF youth players from Castellón in professional football. But not only in the B team, players such as Bruno Soriano, Pau Torres, Migue Leal, Jorge Palatsí, Miguel Ángel Tena (current Director of Football at the club), Xisco Nadal (current first team delegate), Héctor Font and César Arzo (now in the Player’s Department), Pere Martí and Jordi Pablo are players born in Castellón who have made their debuts at the highest level with the Yellow Submarine’s first team.
