July 15, 2012. As is usual for twenty years, Spain takes a new title among young people. That day, the team coached by a Julen Lopetegui who took his first steps on the sidelines won the Euro U19 under the Estonian sun. In the workforce of the current Sevilla FC coach, there were a host of promising young people, who subsequently managed to find a place in the elite. Among them, Kepa Arrizabalaga (Chelsea), Alejandro Grimaldo (Benfica), Juan Bernat (PSG), Suso (Sevilla), Saul (Atlético de Madrid), Oliver Torres (Sevilla) and Paco Alcacer (Villarreal). But during this competition, where La Rojita had also pushed France out of its way in the semi-finals, the eyes of observers were riveted on a fair-haired boy with a youthful look and a post-adolescent who was a little more than his age … Gerard Deulofeu and Jesé Rodriguez. The first, a pure product of La Masia of FC Barcelona, was MVP of the tournament, while the second, from La Fabrica of Real Madrid, finished top scorer in the competition.
Not a surprise, since the two had, for years already, promised a huge future and had even already started in A with their respective club. Clearly at the time it was believed that the Catalan and Canarian were going to be the headliners of Spanish football for the decade to come. If today the comparison can make the youngest chuckle, the Spanish media saw in them the perfect succession of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Everything seemed to be there: the talent necessarily, but also this antagonism between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. Curiously, Gerard Deulofeu seemed, in profile, closer to the Portuguese star than to his Argentinian teammate. He reminded us of the Cristiano of his beginnings at Sporting and then of his exploits in Mancunian lands, with his devastating dribbling to the side and an impressive ease of accelerating. At the same time, Jesé’s profile could be similar, in a way, to that of Lionel Messi who was sometimes seen used as a fake number 9 in Barcelona. Jesé vs Deulofeu, who is better? A debate which in any case regularly animated the Spanish football broadcasts of the time …
Complicated beginnings in the big leagues
Only, things have turned rather badly for the two prodigies, even if today, the Catalan seems to have done a little better than his former companion of adventures in the Spanish U19 and U21. Both had, however, already taken a few steps, managing to integrate, more or less regularly, the rotation of their training club. In this sense, the one who then defended the PSG tunic seemed even ahead. After their brilliant Euro U12s, both continued to play for their club’s B squad, signing statistically monstrous seasons. The Merengue notably ended the 2012/2013 season with 22 goals and 12 assists in the second division. The Blaugrana was elected best player of the year in this same category. Everything was in place so that quickly, the two began to have a major role, with Tata Martino and Carlo Ancelotti.
And it was during this following season that the first turning point came. For both men. Gerard Deulofeu is not yet considered fit to play in Barça, and is sent on loan to Everton, far from the Catalan cocoon. If he manages to get out of the game episodically, the one who was only 19 at the time of his departure for the Mersey must mainly be content with a role of luxury joker, in a stable far away from the top of the ranking, and in a very different football. At the same time, Jesé manages to put Carlo Ancelotti in his pocket and seems to launch his Madrid career rather well, with, too, a role of offensive asset when coming off the bench. On the other hand, he is very convincing in his appearances, with a first pro goal at Camp Nou against Barça at the end of October, even if the Catalan nemesis finally wins the Clasico (2-1). Until this famous evening of March 2014, where he is made the crusaders on a shock with Kolasinac, the defender of Schalke 04. The beginning of the end …
But what happened?
A year after their real stint in the professional world, in England for one and on the side of the Spanish capital for the other, things are therefore rather badly embarked on. The rest will not necessarily be glorious. On his return from injury, Jesé struggles to continue, and clearly lost in terms of support and his back stroke. He will never really come back to Madrid, and will try to relaunch in Paris in the summer of 2016. Very quickly undesirable in Ile-de-France, he goes on loaning. Las Palmas, Stoke City, Betis, Sporting; a series of adventures which all end in the same way, on a huge failure, despite, each time, one or two convincing performances which let think that he could get back on the right path. All, with extra-sporting affairs do you want some here that have regaled the Spanish celebrity press, against a background of infidelities and various love scandals. Not to mention a sometimes obvious overweight and a parallel career attempt in the world of music. The most flashy player of a generation of La Fabrica in which we found Dani Carvajal, Pablo Sarabia, Rodrigo Moreno, Alvaro Morata, Nacho or Lucas Vazquez, he will have finally been the one who had the worst career …
Gerard Deulofeu is, as explained above, a little better, during a career for the moment marked by brilliant flashes drowned in a bath of irregularity too crippling for the highest level. He also has a series of experiences, sometimes brilliantly, such as this second part of the season in Milan in 2016/2017, where we saw at times the player we expected. What had earned him a cape in the national team, crucifying France in Saint-Denis in March 2017 (2-0) with a penalty caused and a goal scored. What follows is a return to Barça, full of hype … For not much in the end, since he falls back into his faults of players a little soloist, who tends not to raise his head when the ball comes into contact with its crampons. He leaves after six months under the orders of Ernesto Valverde, direction Watford where he evolved until his loan to Udinese this summer, being capable of the best as the worst. Without ever experiencing a serious injury until his cruciate ligament rupture last March, he too was often handicapped by physical problems.
Why such failures?
We know that for a young hopeful to succeed in exploiting a whole cocktail of ingredients must succeed in blending in harmony: talent, physical form, good entourage, the confidence of the coaches, good choices of career, good understanding and cohesion with teammates … all with a little touch of luck and success. Many of these elements are often beyond the control of those primarily concerned, Jesé is well aware of this. But if there is one factor that matters – all great players will be able to confirm that – and which depends only on the player, it is work. And if we trust the feedback from journalists covering the news of the La Liga behemoths, both clearly lacked it. Especially in their early years, where players start to lay the foundations for their careers. Maybe they were so talented when they were young that they didn’t need to give themselves more than that to skip dating. Some also criticized them for a flagrant lack of humility. When he was only 18 years old, Gerard Deulofeu had already been taken in flight by the coach of the B team of Barça at the time, Eusebio Sacristan, who had said that he “ must work while being more humble ”. Rebelote in 2016 when Unai Emery explained that the Catalan, which he then had at his command in Seville, was not yet ready: “He does not yet have the necessary maturity. I told him that there are players who aspire to have the same contract as him, players who have less talent but who are more hungry ”. As for Jesé – whose legend Jorge Valdano spoke of a player who “Dragged your feet when you had to sacrifice yourself” – his statements have sometimes been egocentric to say the least.
“The injury has put a big brake on my career, both footballistically and in my personal life, it’s not an excuse but a reality. Everything was harder afterwards. […] I have never liked to compare myself to other players, but I think I would be an indisputable starter at Real Madrid. I’m sure “, confided Jesé in 2017 when he arrived in Las Palmas, when his career still seemed recoverable. In the past, before his injury, he already evoked the Ballon d’Or, encouraged by a Madrid press who had eyes only for him … Far from his current media outings, where he displays much more maturity and hindsight on his mistakes: “I cried, I suffered. I kept this to myself. I’m not going to deny it, I’ve been through some bad times. But now everything is in my hands ”. If we put aside this common point, the two cases are however a little different. The failure of the former Parisian is explained rather by his famous injury, and especially by disciplinary problems which logically prevented him from being an elite athlete. As for Gerard Deulofeu, the nature of his concerns seems to lie more in the way he plays, which has not really changed over the years. Too soloist, too based on one-on-one, too nonchalant, and therefore not in line with what today’s football demands, where a strong collective sense is required and where the wingers are often as involved in defensive work as the lateral. Who knows, if the careers of the two had taken the expected path, the recent history of their two clubs and of the Spanish selection would probably have been very different …
.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
