Asier Villalibre

Athletic Bilbao

Born in Guernica, Biscay, Basque Country,^[1] 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.^[3]

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.^[4] 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.^[5]

Villalibre scored his first professional goal for Bilbao Athletic on 6 September 2015, closing the 3–1 home win over RCD Mallorca.^[6] 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).^[7]

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.^[8] 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.^[9]

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.^[10] He was loaned out to CD Numancia on 2 May of the following year, for one month.^[11]

On 20 August 2017, Villalibre was loaned to second-tier club Real Valladolid for one year.^[12] 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.^[13]

Villalibre scored his first league goal for Athletic on 25 January 2020, playing 84 minutes in the 1–1 away draw with RCD Espanyol.^[14] 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.^[15]

After totalling 35 games and four goals in 2020–21, Villalibre fell down the pecking order the following years,^[16] and was loaned to Deportivo Alavés on 30 January 2023.^[17] He scored twice during the second-division play-offs to help the club to gain promotion, starting with a 2–0 victory over Eibar;^[18] 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.^[19]

Back with Athletic, on 16 September 2023 Villalibre scored in a 3–0 win over Cádiz CF just a few seconds after replacing Gorka Guruzeta.^[20] 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.^[21][22] A month later, he added two to help defeat Eibar in the round of 32 (3–0),^[23] repeating the feat in the next stage as the hosts downed Alavés 2–0;^[24][25] with these six goals, he equalled Javi Luke's tally from the 1991–92 edition,^[26] and finished joint-top scorer of the tournament together with Abdón Prats and Anastasios Douvikas.^[27] He did not leave the bench in the final, won against Mallorca on penalties.^[28][29]

Alavés

On 15 July 2024, Villalibre returned to Alavés on a four-year contract.^[30] In August 2025, he was loaned to second division side Racing de Santander.^[31] In his first three appearances for the latter, he scored four times^[32] to be named Segunda División Player of the Month.^[33]