Yeray Álvarez López, known as Yeray, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a central defender. Born in Barakaldo, Biscay, Basque Country, Yeray joined Athletic Bilbao's youth setup at Lezama in 2008, aged 13. Yeray was promoted to the main squad in the 2016 pre-season and made his competitive debut on 15 September. His run was halted abruptly on 23 December 2016, when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and underwent surgery within the next week; he returned to action on 4 February 2017 after only 46 days. On 12 June 2017, tests found further cancerous abnormalities, resulting in Yeray having to undergo chemotherapy treatment. 259 days after his last appearance, he made his return with the senior team on 4 February 2018 (exactly one year after his first comeback match, both fixtures by strange coincidence taking place on World Cancer Day).