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RDT wants to reconcile with Espanyol to play the World Cup in Qatar

BarcelonaRaúl de Tomás keeps intact his dream of competing in the World Cup in Qatar, which will begin on November 20. Despite having experienced a turbulent summer marked by his frustrated desire to leave Espanyol and by some physical ailments that have prevented him from completing the pre-season and starting the League with the rest of his teammates, the striker believes that there is still time to recover his best version and convince Luis Enrique that he deserves a place in the national team. “Luis Enrique is counting on him, so now it depends on Raúl: if he plays and scores, he will have options”, sources close to the player assure ARA. At the moment, RDT already knows that he will not be on the list that the Asturian coach will announce on September 16 to play in the next two League of Nations matches.

Almost forgetting the physical problems he was suffering, the striker is now starting a time trial: an express pre-season of two and a half months in which he will have to show that he can make a place among strikers such as Aspas, Borja Iglesias, Morata, Gerard Moreno or Rodrigo Moreno, who have started the season with great goalscoring records. The road to return to the national team, however, goes through Espanyol. “Now you need to be calm and think with a cool head”, admit sources close to the footballer, who, as the sports director, Domingo Catoira, admitted, will need some time to mentally assimilate the process experienced this summer.

RDT hopes to be able to train under Diego Martínez and play as soon as possible with the rest of his teammates. In other words, despite having tried to leave the team this summer, RDT is now refusing any scenario that involves watching the games from the stands. The striker is aware that he needs to reconcile with Espanyol and his fans, annoyed by the fact that he explicitly asked to leave to go to a club like Rayo. “In principle he will play again with Espanyol, it is his obligation – admit people close to the Madrid player. It is not an easy scenario, but he has no other choice but to make himself available to the club: he will return at 100%, with the mentality of winning and scoring goals”.

Sevilla wanted a transfer

In recent days, the player has received calls from clubs in several countries where the signing market is still open, options that he does not see with good eyes for now. The RDT environment confirms the versions about the negotiations with Rayo on the last day of the market: there was no final agreement between the clubs. Several clubs were interested in the situation of RDT throughout the summer, including Borussia Dortmund. If the interests did not turn into offers, it was because the potential buyers already saw, in the previous talks, that they would not be able to satisfy the demands of Espanyol and RDT.

The figures of the operation were unaffordable for most clubs, especially those in the League, where there was no financial capacity until the last day of the market. The club started the summer asking for between 35 and 40 million, a figure that made it more flexible in the final part of the market. The player, for his part, wanted to leave transferred and not transferred, a wish that frustrated the interest of several clubs that did not want or could assume the figures of the operation.

Despite the statements of Monchi, the sporting director of Espanyol’s next rival, in which he assured that “RDT was neither a request from Lopetegui nor an option”, the ARA has been able to confirm that the interest of the Andalusian team it was more than real. “Monchi wanted him, but he couldn’t offer the conditions that Espanyol and Raúl wanted”, they say from the player’s environment. Sevilla, who will visit Cornellà-El Prat on Saturday immersed in a sporting and institutional crisis, proposed a pure and hard transfer to the player’s surroundings, just as Real Sociedad did after selling Isak to Newcastle. They didn’t offer the money that Espanyol was asking for, nor the transfer that RDT wanted, which is clear about the path to Qatar: to score goals again with Espanyol.

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