Francisco "Paco" Alcácer García (; born 30 August 1993) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a striker for UAE Pro League club Emirates, on loan from Sharjah.
Having come through the Valencia youth ranks, he started playing with the first team in 2010, and became a regular following a loan at Getafe, totalling 43 goals in 118 matches. In 2016 he signed for Barcelona for €30 million, winning two Copa del Rey trophies and the 2017–18 La Liga during his spell as a reserve to Luis Suárez before leaving for Borussia Dortmund on loan. He signed a permanent deal in Germany in early 2019 after a successful start. He returned to Spain in January 2020, winning the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League with Villarreal.
Alcácer won the European Championship twice with Spain's under-19 side, and made his senior international debut in 2014.
Club career
Valencia
Senior debut
Born in Torrent, Valencian Community, Alcácer was a product of Valencia's youth system. He made his senior debut in the 2009–10 season aged only 16, scoring three goals in 15 games with the reserve side and suffering relegation from Segunda División B.
On 11 November 2010, Alcácer appeared in his first match with the first team, playing the full 90 minutes in a 4–1 home win against UD Logroñés – 7–1 on aggregate – in the Copa del Rey (the fixture was also Isco's senior bow). During that season, he netted 27 times to help the B's to return to the third tier as champions.
2011–12 season
On 12 August 2011, after Alcácer had scored the third and final goal in a 3–0 friendly win over Roma and was leaving the Mestalla Stadium accompanied by his parents, his father fell to the ground after suffering a heart attack; despite 30 minutes of efforts by medics to revive him, the 44-year-old died. He returned to training less than a week later for "therapy purposes", and played the entirety of a fixture with the reserves three days after that.
Alcácer made his La Liga debut for Valencia on 14 January 2012, coming on as a substitute for Sofiane Feghouli for the last 20 minutes of a 1–0 away loss against Real Sociedad. He made two other brief appearances from the bench, whilst scoring at the rate of one goal every two games with the B team.
Loan to Getafe
Alcácer went on loan to Getafe for 2012–13, his first official game being against Deportivo de La Coruña where he played 20 minutes in an eventual 1–1 away draw. He scored his first goal in the top division on 7 January 2013, but in a 3–1 defeat at Rayo Vallecano.
During his spell in Madrid, Alcácer netted four times in total.
2013–14 season
After returning to Valencia, Alcácer scored his first senior goal for his formative club on 3 October 2013, during an away game against Kuban Krasnodar in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League. He first found the net for Los Che in the domestic league on 25 January 2014 in a 2–2 home draw with Espanyol, and grabbed another the following matchday, scoring the 3–2 winner at the Camp Nou against Barcelona.
On 10 April 2014, Alcácer scored the first hat-trick of his professional career, helping overturn a 3–0 first-leg deficit to beat Basel 5–0 at home and qualify for the semi-finals of the Europa League. It was his 14th competitive goal of the campaign, and his seventh in continental competition; this European haul made him the edition's second-highest scorer after compatriot Jonathan Soriano, who netted eight for Red Bull Salzburg.
2014–15 season
On 17 August 2014, Alcácer scored the first goal in a 2–1 home victory over Milan for the Orange Trophy, through a long-range shot, and was assigned the number ′9′ jersey for 2014–15, previously worn by Hélder Postiga. On 9 December, near the end of a 1–1 draw at Granada, he was given a straight red card for striking Juan Carlos.
On 27 January 2015, it was revealed that Alcácer extended his contract until 2020 and his buyout clause had been raised to €80 million.
2015–16 season
On 7 November 2015, Alcácer and Dani Parejo scored twice each in a 5–1 win away to third-place Celta. The following 21 January, the latter was stripped of his captaincy in favour of the former by manager Gary Neville, after a poor run of results.
After three months without a goal, Alcácer broke his barren spell with a hat-trick in a 4–0 home defeat of Eibar on 20 April 2016. He finished the season with 15 in all competitions, in an eventual 12th-place finish.