Angel de la Cruz

Ángel de la Cruz did not have to wait years in the reserves to make his mark: called up on 18 February 2024 for a Liga 1 match away to Unión Comercio, he was thrown in after Ángelo Campos was suspended and Franco Saravia sent off, and started his first professional game for Alianza Lima in a 3-1 win. It was the payoff for a path that began in 2019, when he joined the club's academy as a teenager from Lima and worked his way up through Alianza Lima II in the Peruvian third division.

Before that debut, the club sent him out on loan to Sport Boys for the second half of 2023. He returned to Alianza with more experience of senior football behind him, though it was the academy sides that gave him his biggest early success: as part of the reserve team, he won the Torneo de Promoción y Reservas in 2022, beating Ayacucho FC in the final.

His performances at youth level also brought a call-up to the Peru under-23 squad for a training microcycle in August 2022, though he has not added to that with further appearances for any national side.