Ander Barrenetxea: Why all of Spain are excited about the Real Sociedad No7's fight-back

Still only 21 years of age, Ander Barrenetxea has already experienced a lot in his young career.

The Real Sociedad No.7 debuted for his hometown team almost five years ago and has already gone through the high of winning a trophy with the club and the low of suffering repeated injury setbacks. Now, in the 2023/24 season, Barrenetxea – or Barrene, as he is often called – is standing out in attack for Imanol Alguacil's side, having scored four goals and provided two assists across all competitions.

Born in 2001 and on Real Sociedad's books since 2013, Barrenetxea has lived his entire life supporting La Real and dreaming of playing for the team. That dream became reality when he was just 16 years and 359 days old, as he made his debut against Deportivo Alavés in December of 2018 to become the first player born in the 21st century to play in LALIGA EA SPORTS.

Around that time, the football world was reminded just how young this talent was when Barrenetxea was spotted riding one of the San Sebastián public bicycles home after he'd played almost the entire 90 minutes of a 2-1 victory over Getafe CF in April of 2019. The reason was simple: he was too young to have his driving license yet.

For the young footballer, taking a bicycle home after a game was normal. He'd always been an active teenager, which makes sense since his mother, Azu Muguruza, was the successful basketball coach of Club Deportivo Ibaeta. So, in the mind of the youngster, riding through the streets of the Basque city after playing a top-level football match seemed the most normal thing in the world.

Over the following year, however, Barrenetxea's life would change significantly, as he became an even more integral part of the Real Sociedad first-team set-up.