On 20 June 2013, Andreu Fontàs Prat (born 14 November 1989 in Banyoles, Girona) left FC Barcelona and signed a three-year deal with Celta de Vigo. The fee was €1 million, and Barcelona kept a buy-back option and a share of any future sale. He was the first signing of Luis Enrique's Celta, under the coach who had turned him into a centre-back at Barcelona's reserve side. In Vigo he spent five seasons as a regular in La Liga, after a spell at Barcelona marked by limited minutes and a serious injury.
Banyoles, Girona and La Masia
Fontàs spent eleven years at Club Deportiu Banyoles, his hometown club, from 1995 to 2006. In 2006-07 he played on loan at Girona and made his first-team debut in the Tercera División near the end of the season. In the summer of 2007 he joined Barcelona's Juvenil A, where he was captain, and that year the team reached the final of the youth Copa del Rey. At the time he played as a defensive midfielder.
The reserve side and a first-team debut
In 2008 he moved up to Barcelona Atlètic in the Segunda División B, playing 20 matches in his first season. Luis Enrique, the reserve coach, moved him back to central defence. On 31 August 2009 he made his La Liga debut at Camp Nou against Sporting de Gijón, replacing Gerard Piqué in the 84th minute of a 3-0 win. On 7 December 2010 he played his first Champions League match and scored in a 2-0 win over Rubin Kazan. Between 2008 and 2011 he made 72 league appearances for the reserves, scoring twice.
On 16 March 2011, after Éric Abidal was diagnosed with a liver tumour, he was promoted to the senior squad. In October of that year he extended his contract to 2015. He is listed among the winners of La Liga in 2009-10 and 2010-11, the 2010-11 Champions League, the 2011 UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, and the 2011-12 Copa del Rey. On 12 January 2012 he tore the cruciate ligament in his right knee during a cup tie away to Osasuna and was out for about six months.
Loan at Mallorca
On 15 October 2012 he joined Mallorca on loan until the end of the season. He played 13 matches, nine of them in the league, mostly as a defensive midfielder. The Balearic club were relegated to the Spanish second division in 2013, and Fontàs returned to Barcelona, who sold him to Celta a few weeks later.
Five seasons at Celta
In 2013-14 he played 35 league games as Celta finished ninth. On 31 July 2015 he renewed until June 2019. That August he scored his first La Liga goal in a 3-0 home win over Rayo Vallecano. In November 2015 he injured the Achilles tendon in his left leg in the Galician derby against Deportivo. He underwent surgery in February 2016 and missed the rest of the season.
He returned on 29 September 2016 in the Europa League, in a 2-0 win over Panathinaikos. On 20 October that year he started and wore the captain's armband against Ajax at Balaídos, equalising with a back-heel goal in the 29th minute of a 2-2 draw. In all he made 121 official appearances for Celta and scored three goals: 105 games and two goals in the league, eight cup games and eight European games, with one goal. On 7 August 2018 he terminated his contract.
Sporting Kansas City
The next day, 8 August 2018, he signed for MLS side Sporting Kansas City. He made his debut on 8 September 2018 in a 1-0 win over Orlando City and scored his first goal in the United States on 24 October 2020, in a 4-0 win over the Colorado Rapids. His busiest seasons were 2021 (33 league games) and 2022 (28 games, two goals). Over six seasons with the club he made 124 league appearances with three goals, 147 in all competitions. His contract ran out in November 2024 and the club announced he would not return.
Youth internationals and retirement
With Spain's under-19 side he won the 2008 Atlantic Cup. With the under-20s he took the gold medal at the 2009 Mediterranean Games in Pescara, a tournament in which he played nine matches. He won three under-21 caps between 2010 and 2011, against Croatia, Denmark and Belarus, and played four times for Catalonia between 2010 and 2016. After two months without a club, he announced his retirement in February 2025.
