The Almeria native is one of the main reasons for Villarreal's great start to the season. Despite the defeats to Barcelona and Real Madrid, the Yellow Submarine are fourth in the standings with 17 points, tied with Atletico Madrid in third and having already faced the big three.
Nobody hides the fact that the aim of the team from Castellon is to return to Europe, after finishing last season in eighth position and losing in the Europa League round of 16 to Marseille.
Last Saturday, Baena put in a good performance against Real Madrid, even if his team could not get anything positive from the Bernabeu. He had a presence in attack and looked to break down Madrid's defence regularly.
In the current season, he has five assists. They came against Sevilla (goal by Danjuma), Mallorca (goal by Logan Costa), Espanyol (two, both to Ayoze) and Las Palmas (goal by Thierno Barry), a match in which he also scored.
In the major leagues, only Arsenal's Bukayo Saka has more (seven). He is level with Lamine Yamal, Cole Palmer (Chelsea) and Harry Kane (Bayern Munich). He is also the top assist man in the five major leagues in 2024 with 13 assists, one more than Palmer.
Europa League
Despite being only 23 years old, he is in the Villarreal first team for his fifth season. He spent the 2021/22 campaign with Girona in Segunda on loan, where he ended up scoring the decisive goal against Tenerife that won them promotion to the Primera Division.
In these five years in yellow, his greatest success has been the Europa League triumph in the 2020/2021 season. Despite not being a regular - in fact he did not play in the final - he played nine games and scored two goals.
In total, Baena has played eight seasons as a member of the Villarreal team, having made his debut with the third team in the Third Division in 2018. When he was just 10 years old, he left his native Roquetas de Mar to join the Castellon youth academy, one of the best in Spain. Although he did not want to leave Almeria at first and missed his family, he has since become a leading figure at Villarreal.
The incident with Valverde
Although it is something that is already forgotten, one of the most unpleasant incidents of Baena's career had to do with Federico Valverde in April 2023.
According to the Villarreal player, the Uruguayan player punched him in the bus area of the Bernabeu at the end of the match. The National Police arrived on the scene and took a statement of what happened.
Valverde's entourage claims that in a cup match two months earlier, Baena had made a derogatory comment to him about the problems his wife was having with her pregnancy, something the Villarreal midfielder denied.
Baena filed a complaint for the assault, which was dismissed by the judge in the case.
"It was a very hard few months for me personally, it affected my life, my football, my family. In the end, a lie was told and it hurt me more for my family, who were harassed. It is now a forgotten issue", he later said in statements to Cadena SER.
The summer of his life
Returning to strictly positive matters, Baena's enormous talent has meant that he has not gone unnoticed by the Spanish national team. In fact, he has been capped at U-16, U-17, U-18, U-19, U-20, U-21 and senior level.
He made his debut with Spain's first team on September 12th, 2023 in Granada, scoring in a 6-0 win over Cyprus in a qualifier for the UEFA European Championship in Germany in 2024.
His great season earned him a ticket to the showpiece event between June 14th and July 14th. Spain went on to win their fourth European Championship with a clean sweep of victories, defeating Italy, Germany, France and England.
The tremendous competition in midfield with Rodri, Fabian Ruzi, Pedri, Dani Olmo, Mikel Merino and Martin Zubimendi meant that he was not an essential player for Luis de la Fuente, but this did not prevent him from playing in two games.
He had 20 minutes in the victory against the Azzurri after replacing Pedri and also enjoyed seven minutes in the match against Albania after coming on in place of Olmo.
If winning the European Championship is the best a player can aspire to after winning the World Cup, Baena's summer had only just begun, as he received the call from Santi Denia to go to the Olympic Games.
In France, he played a decisive role. Along with Fermin Lopez, the other European champion who accompanied him to Paris, he was a fundamental part of the national team's play. He scored in the group stage against the Dominican Republic and played a decisive role in the final against France at the Parc des Princes. He assisted Fermin and also scored a wonderful free-kick.
Baena made history in Paris. He became the only player in history, along with Fermin himself and Albert Rust in 1984, to win Olympic gold and the European Championship in the same year.
"The first thing I did when I arrived in Castellon was to get a tattoo of the European Championship and the Paris hoops. One of the keys to Germany's success was the group, there was no bad feeling in the 45 days we were together. Everything was laughter, good times, we helped each other," he said on RFEF channels.
"The word that defines us is family."
In the next few days, he has two opportunities in the Nations League to establish himself in De la Fuente's 11 for Spain, this Saturday against Denmark in Murcia and on Tuesday against Serbia in Cordoba.