Carles Aleña in Barça squad for Valencia - who is he?

Carles Aleña in Barça squad for Valencia - who is he?

A surprise inclusion in Barcelona's squad for the Copa del Rey semi-final with Valencia is teenage midfielder Carles Aleña. 

The 18-year-old plays for the club's Juvenil A side, but has been called up by Gerard Lopez to the Barça B squad already this season. 

Alongside B team goalkeeper Jose Suarez, Aleña has already trained with Lionel Messi and Co. this season, taking part when Barça prepared for a Champions League match against Roma earlier in the campaign. 

Aleña may only have been born in 1998, which was Rivaldo's first season at Camp Nou, but by the time he was four the Brazilian had already made an impression on him. 

It wasn’t long until he stopped responding to Carles - “Call me Pivaldo,” Ivan San Antonio reports he used to ask in a previous profile in Diario SPORT.

Since joining Barça as an eight-year-old, Aleña has captained all the teams he has played for. 

He has also captained Spain’s U17 side, although he recently progressed to the U19 setup. 

A creative midfielder, his name regularly appears on the score-sheet and many La Masia watchers have picked him out as one of the academy's biggest prospects.

Luis Enrique obviously agrees - or at least wants to check out the youngster for himself - not least because of this goal he scored in the UEFA Youth League earlier this season: