BarcelonaAlmost every weekend, it is normal to see emissaries from European clubs on the fields of the Ciutat Esportiva Dani Jarque tracking some young pearl of the prolific Espanyol squad. This type of visit is a common practice: the white-and-blue entity gives invitations to the clubs that ask for it and receives them when they ask for it. Not all of these professional exchanges end up concretizing in a firm proposal for the player in question, but the truth is that, since the beginning of the 21st century, at least 18 children of the white-and-blue base football have packed their bags to go directly abroad. Almost one per season.
The Spanish entity tries to seduce these young talents with a long-term sports project, although it never agrees to commit by contract that the player ends up in the first team. The stop is at the subsidiary. At the top you have to get there by your own merits, not by contract, they understand from the white-and-blue club. One of the players who lived through this process is Maresmen’s Pol Lirola, who this Sunday (2 p.m., Movistar LaLiga) will face the club where he played as a cadet and youth player for the first time. The right-back, who is playing on loan at Elche this year, was considered by those responsible for Spanish grassroots football to be the most promising player of the generation of 1997, that of Melendo, Aarón Martín, Lluís López or Víctor Campuzano.
Shortly after making his debut with the subsidiary, and while Espanyol was negotiating a renewal proposal to protect him, Juventus made him an offer that he could not refuse. “It should be borne in mind that, as a general rule, they tend to be very difficult offers to say no to. In some cases, it has been possible to offer close to a million euros gross in contracts for three or four seasons”, explains a person who worked for a few years in the Espanyol youth academy. Astronomical figures for young people who, at the white-and-blue club, could earn between 12,000 and 18,000 euros per year in the youth stage and around 30,000 in the subsidiary.
“In Lirola it was impossible to keep him, Espanyol couldn’t get even a third of what they offered him”, comments a former employee of the club who treated him. Paradoxically, it was a partner of Espanyol who took him out of the white-and-blue outfit. Javier Ribalta (then head of scouters from Juventus), he was the one who convinced Lirola to leave for Turin. The full-back went on loan to Italy in January 2015. Juventus retained ownership of him that same summer. In total, the Turinese paid 650,000 euros for him. Later, Espanyol also collected 700,000 euros from the sale to Sassuolo corresponding to 10% of the economic rights that had been reserved and just over 200,000 euros for the solidarity mechanism for the subsequent sales to Fiorentina and Marseille, where he agree with the ex-Spanish player Pau López. Lirola ended up leaving nearly 1.6 million euros in Espanyol’s accounts.
Operations welcomed by the board
At 25 years old, the Catalan defender has managed to play 128 matches in Serie A, 53 in Ligue 1 and five in La Liga. He also knows what it’s like to play in the Europa League and the Conference League. These records place him, by far, as the player who has had a better career among Espanyol’s teenagers who packed their bags to find a life abroad. Seven went to Italy, but the majority, 11, went to England. Manchester City, in fact, is the club that has caught the most fish in the Spanish squad, with four signings.
Until the arrival of Chen Yansheng, this type of operation was more than welcome in the noble offices of Cornellà-El Prat. “The managers expected that every year there would be some important sale in grassroots football because the economic situation was what it was. Despite the loss of sporting potential, it seemed good to them that there was a big transfer”, points out a person who was linked to the white-and-blue squad for several years.
In total, Espanyol ended up paying close to 8 million euros (between transfers, percentages of future sales and the solidarity mechanism) for the 18 youngsters who went directly to clubs outside of Spain. Sportingly speaking, making this jump is an opportunity that carries some risks. “If you do more or less well and carry the label of having played at Manchester City or United, you guarantee the option of returning to a team with a face and eyes, where you then have to earn to be able to have a certain career “, they point out from the Spanish football base.
Broken careers
The elite careers that players like Lirola and Maffeo have had, however, are an exception: none of the other players who packed their bags to leave Espanyol directly abroad have ended up succeeding in football. There are very few who have gone on to play in a European First Division, and none of them have established themselves there. “You have to regret the decisions you make, not the ones you don’t make. No one knows if they would have made it to Espanyol’s first team: football careers are not a straight line, but take many turns”, admits the former employee of the club. Sergio Tejera (now at Cartagena) managed to play a few games in La Liga after a few years without much fortune in Chelsea’s lower divisions, but has spent most of his career in the Second Division. Arnau Puigmal is looking for better luck at Almeria in his first year in the Premier League after failing to make the final move to Manchester United.
From the other Manchester club, City, Joan Román also returned without luck (he only played three games in the First Division with Villarreal and now plays for Podbeskidzie in the Second Division of Poland); Erik Sarmiento (returned to Espanyol three seasons after leaving and is now at Igualada, aged 24); Òscar Tarensi (at the age of 19 he now plays for Celta C, of the 3rd RFEF) or Mahamadou Susoho (he continues in the lower categories of the club cityzen). Román Golobart, son of former Spanish footballer Joan Golobart, managed to play three matches in the Premier League, but almost his entire career has been spent in the Second and Third Divisions of England, Spain and Germany. Cristian Márquez tried his luck at Fulham, but the experience barely lasted two years. After a long journey through Andalusia and Catalonia, he is now the captain of Badalona. Juanjo Serrano, who left for Aston Villa, went through the same thing and now plays for Borges.
Julián Serrano, Albert Mozó and Alejandro Rodríguez did not have more luck in Italy, who only lasted two years at Cesena: the first two ended up playing for Catalan clubs of lower categories, and the third did the same in Italy and now he plays in Serie C. Nor was Kevin Levis (now at Vilamarxant, years after signing for Novara) successful in football. Álvaro Martí (Lecce) and Mateo Joseph (Leeds United) have been the last to take the step.
