After leg break, Alex Araneda on path back to pros in Phoenix

It was the news no footballer wants to hear.

“I remember when it first happened, the trainers at Galaxy told me they thought it was a bone bruise, that I’d be out maybe two weeks,” Phoenix Rising defender Alex Araneda said. “I went to get an X-ray and one person said it was a fracture. Then I went to get another X-ray, and they said it was broken and I was going to be out for maybe seven months.

“At the time, all you can think about it how am I going to come back?”

It was the 2024 preseason. A Southern California boy, Araneda’s career could have been destined to end not too far from where it began.

Years earlier, it was a chance encounter at the Orange County Great Park in Irvine that saw him get his first opportunity at California United Strikers in NISA.

“I was playing high school, and I was going to go play college and I just didn’t feel like it was right for me,” Araneda said. “My dad happened to be walking around and saw them training and asked them.”

“The next day, I went out, then maybe a week later they offered me a contract.”

It was the window to the rest of the professional game that Araneda needed. While NISA may have a growing reputation as the most unstable of America’s professional football leagues, with multiple teams folding and matches resulting in forfeits over the past few years, Araneda recalls a professional setup at Strikers that offered him the ability to develop himself further.

“Obviously it’s not in the position that they want it to be at, but I think it’s still a good outlet for players that don’t really have too much exposure right now, or maybe people don’t know about them,” he said. “Just to get touches in, or see if maybe someone’s watching a game one day, and the same thing that happened to me could happen to them.

“I don’t think it’s a bad option. Obviously it’s not the greatest option, but it’s still something. I think a lot of people would rather just quit than try playing NISA, and I think it’s still not that bad of an option.”

Araneda was expecting to return to Strikers for the 2022 season, but his performances had caught the eye of someone who would later become his agent. Invited to a trial with North Texas SC, he impressed and was signed by the Texan squad in MLS NEXT Pro.

That’s where Araneda first met Pa-Modou Kah, who was at the time the head coach at North Texas.

“Super intense, but I think he really cares about the players and the wellbeing of everybody,” he said. “He tries to push everybody to the level that he knows that we can get to. He’s a really good coach.”

It was Kah who would orchestrate a transition from defensive midfielder into his current position as a center-back. One day, after a teammate went down in training, Araneda slotted into the role and didn’t look back.

“It wasn’t too hard because as a six, you’re doing a lot of things that a center-back should do, just higher up the field,” Araneda said. “Going back, it’s maybe a little more simple. I think most sixes could play, and I already had the height, and Pa thought it would be a good idea to try me there, so it hasn’t been too bad.”

Araneda would remain at North Texas for 2023 after Kah departed for Charlotte, but it was later, in the 2024 preseason, that his life would take an unexpected turn thanks to a broken leg.

“There’s a lot of thoughts,” Araneda said. “You don’t really know what’s going to happen, so you’ve just kind of got to stay strong mentally and believe that when you come back, you can come back stronger.”

Wheelchair-bound, Araneda relied on his parents and brother to help him work his way through his recovery. He focused heavily on keeping himself healthy and getting to work in the gym, before finally getting back on his feet.

“It’s hard because obviously when you’re running, it doesn’t feel normal at first,” Araneda said. “You kind of get back into it. With a little bit of adrenaline, I could kind of play.”

Then, it was time to get back on the field, initially with Craq FC in UPSL.

“Obviously 50-50s, tackles… mentally, it’s hard,” Araneda said. “You’re kind of scared. You don’t want anything to happen.”

The next step in his recovery came from overseas. Tres Cantos, a team from Spain, was looking for some extra players ahead of their season in the Preferente Madrid. Araneda traveled across the Atlantic to link up with them, logging more minutes and even chipping in with a few goals along the way.

“I think there’s a lot of players over there that could come here and play on teams, but they just don’t really have the connections for it,” Araneda said. “But the level, there’s really good players over there.”

“It was huge [for me]. It gave me the confidence to be able to play again. I think if I don’t go there, maybe I don’t end up here.”

All the while, his connection with Pa-Modou Kah was still ongoing behind the scenes.

“He had been checking in on me, seeing how I was doing, because he knew about the injury,” Araneda said.

That connection would prove critical in getting Araneda back into the professional game.

“Once I found out he got the job in Phoenix, my agent reached out to him, just to see if they were looking to sign players or anything was happening,” Araneda said. ” I had seen some of our other players had signed here.

“He told my agent he’d love to have me come out for a trial and see if things would work out, and obviously things went pretty well.”

Now, the focus is to get back on the pitch at the professional level, something he’s doing with the support of Rising’s staff.

“I think we have a really good group here, and a lot of good trainers that really care and know what they’re doing,” Araneda said. “It’s not a team where if you’re feeling something and you tell them they’re going to complain. They’re always helping everybody.”

That leaves just one more step for Araneda: making his first appearance in USL Championship.

“Whenever my time is or whenever they need me, I just want to make sure that I’m ready,” Araneda said. “We have a group of players where when people come off the bench, you don’t see a level drop. It’s a very strong group of players, so I just want to make sure that when my time comes, that I’m ready to perform too.”