Asier Villalibre

Asier Villalibre Molina (born 30 September 1997) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a striker for La Liga club Deportivo Alavés.

Club career
Born in Guernica, Biscay, Basque Country, Villalibre joined Athletic Bilbao's youth setup in 2011. He made his debut as a senior with the farm team in the 2013–14 season, scoring on his Tercera División debut at the age of 15.

In May 2015, after a further 20 goals for the third side, Villalibre was promoted to the reserves in the Segunda División – he had already represented them the previous campaign in the Segunda División B. He made his professional debut on 24 August, coming on as a second-half substitute for Gorka Santamaría in a 1–0 home loss against Girona FC.

Villalibre scored his first professional goal for Bilbao Athletic on 6 September 2015, closing the 3–1 home win over RCD Mallorca. At 17 years and 341 days, this made him the second-youngest goalscorer for the team when competing in the second division (behind Ander Garitano's 17 years and 198 days in 1986).

On 3 December 2016, Villalibre was called up to the first team for the Basque derby against SD Eibar, with habitual first-choice Aritz Aduriz suspended after being sent off in the previous league match. He made his La Liga debut the following day, replacing Iñaki Williams after 84 minutes and providing the assist for Iker Muniain to score the final goal of a 3–1 victory in injury time.

Villalibre appeared in his first game in European competition on 8 December 2016, contributing another decisive pass in a 1–1 draw away to SK Rapid Wien in the UEFA Europa League group stage after once again coming on from the bench. He was loaned out to CD Numancia on 2 May of the following year, for one month.

On 20 August 2017, Villalibre was loaned to second-tier club Real Valladolid for one year. After only netting twice in the cup, his loan was terminated and he subsequently moved to Lorca FC of the same league also in a temporary deal.

Villalibre scored his first league goal for Athletic on 25 January 2020, playing 84 minutes in the 1–1 away draw with RCD Espanyol. The following 17 January, his last-minute equaliser against FC Barcelona earned extra time and an eventual 3–2 win in the 2021 Supercopa de España final; he was also the target of an aggression that earned Lionel Messi the first club red card of his career.

After totalling 35 games and four goals in 2020–21, Villalibre fell down the pecking order the following years, and was loaned to Deportivo Alavés on 30 January 2023. He scored twice during the second-division play-offs to help the club to gain promotion, starting with a 2–0 victory over Eibar; in the second leg of the final at Levante UD, his penalty deep into injury time of extra time was the tie's only goal.

Back with Athletic, Villalibre scored in a 3–0 win over Cádiz CF just a few seconds after replacing Gorka Guruzeta on 16 September 2023. On 7 December, in his first start of the season, he netted twice against CD Cayón in the second round of the Copa del Rey. A month later, he added two to help defeat Eibar in the round of 32 (3–0), repeating the feat in the next stage as the hosts downed Alavés 2–0; with these six goals, he equalled Javi Luke's tally from the 1991–92 edition, and finished joint-top scorer of the tournament together with Abdón Prats and Anastasios Douvikas. He did not leave the bench in the final, won against Mallorca on penalties.

On 15 July 2024, Villalibre returned to Alavés on a four-year contract.

International career
Villalibre made his debut for the unofficial Basque Country national team in May 2019, in a 0–0 draw away to Panama for which a small, youthful and inexperienced squad was selected.

Honours
Athletic Bilbao
 * Copa del Rey: 2023–24; runner-up: 2019–20, 2020–21
 * Supercopa de España: 2021