Lander Pinillos Scouting Report: How He Plays and Where He Fits

Quick Answer

Lander Pinillos is a Navarrese mediapunta produced by Deportivo Alavés’ own academy. He is neither a touchline winger nor a deep-lying playmaker: he is a number ten who drops between the lines and arrives late in the box. His two clearest qualities are a habit of finding the goal and the ability to change direction off his first touch in tight areas. Through the opening three rounds of 2026-27, four of Alavés B’s five goals are his, and he scored them in just two appearances. His most obvious limitation is one the player himself has named: the defensive side of his game, and in particular his duel-winning rate. At 1.78 m and 70 kg, that matters in a first-team hierarchy as physical as Alavés’. His current level is Segunda Federación, the fourth tier of Spanish football. His La Liga record consists of a single substitute appearance in the 88th minute away at Real Betis on 22 August 2025, plus 29 minutes in a Copa del Rey tie. Production is proven; level is not. He is not a ready-made starter for a mid-table European top flight, but his contract expires on 30 June 2027 with no renewal talks opened and his market value sits in the €210,000-€223,000 band. That makes this a timing file rather than a transfer file: a low-cost development signing, or a free-agent opportunity in the summer of 2027, for a club that genuinely plays a number ten.

Player Card

Career and Transfer History

Season Statistics (2021-2026 and the start of 2026-27)

Data note: platforms diverge sharply on this player. Soccerway attaches its own warning that historical data may be incomplete and lists his Alavés B seasons in single-figure appearance counts, which do not match the season totals reported by the local press; those figures were therefore left out of this report. The position label also shifts from source to source: LaLiga’s official record and the English Wikipedia entry call him a midfielder / mediapunta, FotMob classifies him as a forward, and Soccerway lists him as a centrocampista. A scout filtering by position will find him in three different lists, or in none of them. Because the 2026-27 sample consists of two matches, no per-90 rate has been calculated anywhere in this report.

Who is he? From Estella to Vitoria-Gasteiz

Lander Pinillos Wilson was born in Pamplona on 6 October 2003. He started out at the school team of Lizarra Ikastola in Estella, spending his first years as a centre-forward. When he moved to eleven-a-side football he was shifted to the left flank, and as he matured he settled where he plays today: the mediapunta zone, immediately behind the forward line. That three-stage drift is worth holding on to when reading his game. He learned the goal zone as a striker, accumulated his one-versus-one and tight-space solutions on the wing, then combined the two centrally.

His first real jump came at 16, playing U19 Liga Nacional with CD Izarra. On 23 May 2021, still 17, he made his senior debut against Barakaldo in what was then the final season of Segunda División B. Reaching a senior squad at that age from a small Navarrese club is not common, and Izarra still follow and celebrate the milestones of his career.

UD Mutilvera then took him for his final youth year in División de Honor. He scored 5 goals across a 31-round season at the club south of Pamplona, which earned him first a run with their reserve side in the Navarrese regional league and then a senior appearance in Segunda Federación — against Izarra, the club he had left months earlier.

Deportivo Alavés moved in after that season, adding him on a free transfer to their third team, Alavés C, in the summer of 2022. He alternated between the C and B sides through 2022-23 and 2023-24 before establishing himself permanently in the reserves in 2024-25, where he became one of the cornerstones of ‘Molo’ Casas’ Segunda Federación side.

2024-25: indispensable for the reserves, knocking on the first-team door

2024-25 was Pinillos’ first complete season. He appeared in 29 of the reserves’ 34 matches and finished with 5 goals and 1 assist. For a mediapunta those are not eye-catching numbers, but they are meaningful in terms of availability: being on the pitch for roughly 85% of a team’s matches, even in the fourth tier, says a great deal about where a player stands with his coach.

On matchday 38 he was named in a first-team squad for the first time, for the fixture against Osasuna at Mendizorroza. He did not play, but the call-up was a signal. Eduardo Coudet, the head coach at the time, made no secret of his interest whenever he was asked in press conferences which academy players deserved consideration.

That interest became concrete in the summer of 2025. Pinillos was included in first-team pre-season and played in four of the five friendlies — against Athletic Club, Castellón, Huesca and Eibar. On 12 July 2025 his contract was extended by two years to 30 June 2027. The fact that his shirt number was above 25 still marked him, in registration terms, as a B-team player; in practice he was training daily with the senior group.

The La Liga debut, and the silence that followed

22 August 2025, La Cartuja in Seville. Trailing 1-0 to Real Betis, one of Coudet’s final moves was to withdraw Antonio Blanco for Pinillos. The 88th minute. His La Liga record today still consists of that single appearance and the minute that one data platform logs for it. Alavés lost, but an academy graduate reaching Primera División is an output the Ibaia training complex counts as news in its own right.

He then sat on the bench without playing against Getafe, Mallorca and Elche. His only real contribution came on 30 October 2025 in the Copa del Rey: he replaced Carlos Vicente for the final half hour of a 7-0 win away at CD Getxo and assisted the sixth goal for Diego Morcillo, a team-mate from the reserves. FotMob rated him 7.4 for that match — the only recorded first-team match rating of his career.

The trip to Girona on 8 November 2025 was his last appearance in a first-team squad. From that point on Aitor Mañas and Izei Hernández settled more permanently into the attacking rotation, and Pinillos’ involvement was confined to the reserves for the remainder of the season. That detail matters: what kept him out was not injury or a disciplinary issue, but direct competition within the hierarchy.

2026-27: four goals in two matches

Alavés B are back in Segunda Federación this season after being eliminated in last year’s promotion play-offs by Real Jaén. The squad has been substantially rebuilt but the coach is unchanged: ‘Molo’ Casas. Three rounds in, there are two wins and one defeat — a 2-0 opening loss to Coruxo, then a 2-1 win away at UD Llanera and a 3-1 home win over Real Oviedo Vetusta at Ibaia.

The common factor in both wins is Pinillos. He scored twice at Llanera, both goals arriving inside the opening quarter of each half, in the passages where he was setting the rhythm of the match. He scored twice again against Oviedo Vetusta, turning around a game his team had been losing. Three rounds in, four of the team’s five goals are his, produced in only two appearances; he was not in the squad for the opener.

The number is striking, but it deserves an honest reading. A two-match sample permits no rate calculation at all. No per-90 goal figure or expected-goals derivative has been computed anywhere in this report by deliberate choice: four goals in two matches records a beginning, not a trend. What is meaningful is not the figure itself but the context around it — a player who previously produced 5 goals across a full fourth-tier season has matched that total in this season’s first two appearances. Local press currently describe him as comfortably the reserves’ most influential player.

Position and role: what a mediapunta is, and whether Alavés have one

In Spanish football language, mediapunta describes the player operating immediately behind the forward line — somewhere between the advanced playmaker and the shadow striker of English-language terminology. Pinillos leans towards the second of those. Rather than demanding the ball to feet and building from there, he receives between the lines, moves towards the box, reaches second balls first and arrives late in the scoring zone. That is the natural product of a development path running from centre-forward through the wing and back into the middle.

The problem is that Deportivo Alavés’ first team does not use the position. Since taking charge on 3 March 2026, Quique Sánchez Flores has played a back five — 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 — and in that shape the single slot behind the attack is shared between two forwards. The midfield three rotates between Antonio Blanco, Pablo Ibáñez, Ander Guevara, Carles Aleñá, Mikel Rodríguez and Carlos Protesoni, none of whom is a classic number ten. The wide channels belong to Ángel Pérez and Abde Rebbach as carrileros.

This is the second time the same structural issue appears in the Alavés squad. Miguel Rodríguez, the right winger signed from FC Utrecht in July 2026, has managed roughly 10 minutes in seven rounds for exactly the same reason. Pinillos’ case is sharper still: he is not a signing with a fee attached but an academy product at the back of the queue. The only door the system opens for him depends on the coach deciding to drop one of the two forwards deeper.

On and off the ball

With the ball, the distinguishing feature is his first touch and his ability to turn. Receiving with his back to an opponent, he tends to open his body and rotate rather than lay the ball off to the safe side — a behaviour that opens a passing lane early in a congested central area. That capacity to play one-touch in tight space explains the build-up phase of most of the goals he has produced in the reserves.

Off the ball, his real quality is timing. It is not coincidental that both goals at Llanera fell in the opening quarter of each half: he is aggressive about arriving in the box in the minutes when defensive lines have not yet settled and distances are still loose. This is less a classic poacher’s instinct than the blind-side running habit of a player arriving from the second line.

In attacking transition he is functional, capable of turning forward and launching the run the moment possession is won. In settled attack against a low block, however, his toolkit narrows: at 1.78 m he cannot take on the job of pinning a centre-back, and he is not a dribbler who holds the ball long enough to break a game open on his own. That is the first area to come under examination if he steps up a level.

In defensive transition and pressing his shortfall is clear, and the sharpest assessment of it comes from the player himself. In the summer of 2025 he said he needed to take a further step on the defensive side, particularly in winning duels, and added that this mattered all the more in a team as physical as Alavés. A player describing his own gap with that precision is both a positive character signal and directly usable information for a scout.

The core of this report: three clocks running at once

What makes the Pinillos file interesting is less the football than the three separate clocks running on him simultaneously.

The first is the age clock. He has lost his under-23 status this season. Under Spanish registration rules this is a critical threshold: if he takes the field in an official first-team match he cannot return to the reserves for the remainder of the season. In other words, if Sánchez Flores chooses to give him ten minutes in a single match, Pinillos cannot play Segunda Federación for the rest of that campaign and has no guarantee of regular minutes in the first team either. The rule pushes the club into an ‘either promote him entirely or never use him’ dilemma, and in practice makes it harder for a young player to move up.

The second is the contract clock. His deal expires on 30 June 2027 and, according to local press, no concrete step towards renewal has yet been taken. That puts him in a position where a pre-contract can be agreed from January 2027, and makes a low-fee transfer possible from the same date. Unlike with the rest of the squad, Alavés’ negotiating position here is weak.

The third is the system clock. A back five removes the mediapunta position altogether. Unless the coach changes or the structure loosens, the space available to him in the first team will stay limited.

Where those three clocks intersect is this: 2026-27 may be his last window to prove himself at Alavés. Local press reported that offers were on the table in the summer — Córdoba among them — and that the player chose to stay in Vitoria-Gasteiz. In scouting terms, that describes a profile who is both ready to move and available to be approached.

Where would he fit? Leagues and level

The direct answer is that at his present level he is not a starter for a mid-table top-flight side anywhere in Europe’s larger leagues. The reason is not a lack of talent but a lack of evidence. Goals scored in the fourth tier of Spanish football are not a currency that converts directly into the tempo and physical standard of a major league. The real test for a mediapunta is carrying the ball without losing it when the opposing midfield presses at close range and the spaces are tight, and Pinillos has no meaningful recorded minutes under those conditions.

The physical picture also requires care. 1.78 m and 70 kg is a small frame for a central role in a physical league, and combined with the duel-winning gap he has himself described, it can leave his team exposed in defensive transition after a turnover.

LaLiga Hypermotion (Spanish second tier) is the most natural next step: same football culture, same language, similar playing ideas, and two rungs up from the fourth tier. A loan or a low-fee permanent move is the logical route. Primera Federación would offer immediate starter status. Portugal’s Liga 2 and the Dutch Eerste Divisie are two competitions with a lower physical threshold that leave space for technical players, with the added advantage of an active resale market. Turkey’s second tier sits in a similar band, and his EU passport removes one registration obstacle there. Gulf leagues and MLS do not suit his current profile: those markets expect either proven output or high physical capacity.

Ideal team-mates

The squad structure in which Pinillos would return most value is fairly specific:

• A centre-forward who pins centre-backs. Since he cannot do that job himself, the nine ahead of him needs to win aerial duels and drag the defence back, which opens the space behind for his late runs.
• A number six holding the balance behind him. Tracking back after a turnover is not his strength; the player behind him needs the range to cover that ground.
• Two full-backs providing width. Playing centrally, he needs the wide channels occupied by the full-backs so that the inside space stays open for him.
• An inverted winger. When a winger cutting inside pulls defensive attention into the half-space, the corridor into the box opens for Pinillos.

Shapes that suit him: 4-2-3-1 (central ten) and a 4-4-2 diamond (at the tip). Shapes that do not: 5-3-2, where the position simply does not exist, and 4-3-3, where he would have to carry defensive load as a central midfielder.

Injuries, availability and discipline

There is no record in public sources of a serious or recurring injury for Pinillos. Featuring in 29 of the reserves’ 34 matches in 2024-25, playing four of five pre-season friendlies in 2025 and appearing regularly in both reserve and first-team squads through 2025-26 draws a clean availability picture. It should be said that injury data is recorded patchily at the lower tiers, which is why the risk class here is given as monitor rather than low: an absence of data is not the same thing as positive data.

There is likewise nothing to note on discipline. He has taken no yellow or red card in his two appearances in 2026-27, and there is no club-announced internal disciplinary process or reported incident on record.

The only concrete indicator on the professional side is that he weighed up the offers on the table in the summer window and chose to stay. No verified statement from the player explaining that decision exists, so no interpretation has been placed on it here.

Registration status and work permits

European Union: as a Spanish citizen he occupies no non-EU quota slot in Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium or comparable markets. For a player coming out of the lower tiers this removes a significant obstacle.

Turkey: he would be registered as a foreign player. Because he was born on 6 October 2003 he falls inside the young-foreigner allocation the Turkish Football Federation applies for 2026-27, which covers players born on or after 1 January 2003. Registration rules change from season to season, so the current TFF directive should be checked before any move.

England: on his current record he is unlikely to meet Governing Body Endorsement criteria. He has no international caps, the fourth tier carries no weight in the league banding system, and his senior minutes are negligible. This is not a definitive legal opinion; any club would need specialist assessment before a formal application.

Alternative profiles

Player types that sit in the same budget and profile band:

• Spanish reserve-team number tens: Segunda Federación and Primera Federación hold a substantial pool of 21-to-23-year-olds with expiring contracts and EU passports. The advantage of this band is the low fee; the disadvantage is the unproven level.
• Second-tier number tens in the destination market: zero adaptation risk and a comparable fee, but a narrower resale margin.
• Out-of-contract top-flight rotation players: no transfer fee and a proven level, but markedly higher wage expectations.

Listing alternatives by name is work that has to be verified against the transfer window and each club’s situation on the date of publication, so this section is given by profile band instead.

Related files

If you are studying this player, these Deportivo Alavés files on GegenSports are worth reading alongside it:

• Carles Aleñá scouting report — his closest role equivalent in the first team
• Miguel Rodríguez scouting report — another attacker facing the same structural problem
• Aitor Mañas scouting report — the academy rival who made the step up
• Selu Diallo scouting report — a midfielder in a comparable position in the hierarchy
• Antonio Blanco scouting report — the player he replaced on his La Liga debut

Strengths

• Arrival in the scoring zone — The genuinely distinguishing quality for a mediapunta. Four goals in his first two matches of 2026-27, following 5 goals in 29 reserve appearances in 2024-25. This is a number ten who enters the box rather than one content to distribute.
• Timing of his runs — Both goals away at Llanera arriving inside the opening quarter of each half is no accident. He favours the blind-side run in the minutes when defensive lines are still unsettled — the most valuable habit a second-line arriver can have.
• First touch and turning in tight space — Receiving with his back to goal, he opens his body and rotates away rather than laying the ball back to safety. In a congested central zone that behaviour opens a passing lane early.
• Positional flexibility — Centre-forward as a child, left winger in his teens, mediapunta as a senior. Having genuinely played all three raises his usability across shapes, particularly for teams that switch between a 4-4-2 diamond and a 4-2-3-1.
• Availability — No serious injury appears in public records. He played 29 of 34 reserve matches in 2024-25 and four of five pre-season friendlies in 2025. Even at lower-tier level, that workload is a positive physical indicator.
• Awareness of his own gap — In his 2025 assessment he said himself that he needed to improve defensively, particularly in duels. A player who can name his development area that precisely is a more workable proposition in a development signing.

Development Areas and Risks

• No proof of level — His current output comes in the fourth tier of Spanish football. His La Liga record is one match and roughly one minute, and the 29 Copa minutes came against lower-tier opposition. This is the largest gap in the file.
• Duels and defensive contribution — The development area the player identifies himself. At 1.78 m and 70 kg he has a small frame for a physical league, and he can leave his team exposed in the transition after a turnover. The gap becomes more visible in systems that press high.
• Limited solutions in settled attack — Against a low block his toolkit narrows: he cannot pin a centre-back in the box, and he is not a dribbler who holds the ball long enough to break a game open alone. This is the first thing a step up would test.
• Small sample — Four goals in two matches is a beginning, not a trend. That is why no per-90 rate appears anywhere in this report. Where the number settles as the season progresses is unknown.
• System mismatch — His club’s first team plays a back five, and that shape has no mediapunta slot. The obstacle to his sporting progress is structural rather than performance-based, and the same problem would recur at any buying club playing three at the back.
• Loss of under-23 status — No longer classed as under-23 this season, he cannot return to the reserves for the remainder of a campaign in which he plays an official first-team match. The rule pushes the club into an all-or-nothing choice and, in practice, makes minutes harder to come by.

Cost Scenarios

GegenSports Scouting Scores (/100)

These scores are a GegenSports editorial assessment and have not been copied from any external platform. They are calculated from match records, current statistics, the level of the competition he plays in, his age, role, contract situation and estimated transfer cost taken together. Because his senior sample is so small, the physical capacity and defensive contribution entries in particular have been given conservatively; both would be expected to move up or down once he accumulates regular minutes at a higher level. The high value-for-money score reflects the low price rather than the quality.

Comparable Players

Sporting Director’s Note

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources and Data Note

This report was prepared by cross-checking LaLiga’s official player page, local press coverage of Deportivo Alavés, publicly available match reports and comparative statistics platforms. The tactical assessments are GegenSports editorial scouting analysis and have not been taken from any other scouting platform. Entries that conflict between platforms are flagged explicitly in the text; because the 2026-27 season offers a two-match sample, no per-90 rate has been calculated. Data is valid as of the last update date.

• LaLiga official player page — shirt number, date of birth, height, weight and 2026-27 appearance record
• Noticias de Álava — 21 September 2026 player feature (season start, under-23 status, contract situation and summer offers)
• Noticias de Álava — 23 August 2025 La Liga debut feature (youth background, 2024-25 reserve statistics, pre-season and the player’s own assessment)
• Noticias de Álava — 13 and 20 September 2026 Alavés B match reports (UD Llanera and Real Oviedo Vetusta)
• FotMob — shirt number, preferred foot, market value curve, 2025-26 first-team appearance record and Copa del Rey match rating
• Sofascore — contract expiry, height, transfer history, market value and 2026-27 appearance records
• Soccerway — contract expiry and 2026-27 first-team non-selection record (with its own note that career data may be incomplete)
• English Wikipedia — full name, birth details, career table, debut dates and contract extension
• Futbolme and RFEF publications — Segunda Federación Group 1 fixtures and group confirmation
• Deportivo Alavés official records — 12 July 2025 contract extension announcement

Last updated: 22 September 2026