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What’s the story?
Real Madrid have been behind Real Betis wonderkid Dani Ceballos for quite a while now, but Sport reports that Barcelona have joined the race for the youngster who has impressed all and sundry after breaking into the Betis first team in 2014, aged just 18.
In fact, Barcelona are reported to have offered a player + cash swap deal involving Cristian Tello to further convince Betis to sell to them instead of Madrid.
In case you didn’t know
Cabellos was the outstanding performer in Spain’s run to the final in the U-21 European Championships that concluded yesterday (Germany won it, 1-0) and his ability to control the game from midfield with his immaculate passing, ball control and rare vision has come to the limelight.
He had started off a Sevilla youth product but had been released by them in 2009 citing a chronic bronchitis problem he used to suffer. Accepting that setback he moved back to his hometown and signed up for CD Utrera before moving on to Sevilla’s hated cross-town rivals Real Betis in 2011. After three years at the academy, he was promoted straight away to the first team squad (bypassing the usual route of having to play in the B squad) – and his quite incredible talent has seen him rack up 109 career appearances already for the Andalusians (across all competitions)
The heart of the matter
A versatile midfielder such as Ceballos – who can slot in across any position – is an asset for any side, especially one that prides itself so much on the quality of its midfield like Barcelona but there appears to be another dominating influence behind this transfer bid. The Catalans will be keen to reassert their dominance on the domestic scene after having lost a couple of promising Spanish youngsters to Madrid in Theo Hernandez and Marco Asensio – they are reportedly keen not to repeat the same mistake and hence the ever-increasing interest in Ceballos.
Video
The lad is quite good, there’s no doubt:
Oh, and he ran the show against Italy:
He’d be a definite asset to either of the Spanish giants
Author’s take
Promoting youngsters such Ceballos is oftentimes hard at clubs of the ilk of Barcelona and Real Madrid, but like he showed in the U-21 Euros, and across the last La Liga season, he has the pure quality that merits a big club taking such a risk on him. While on a personal level it might be more beneficial to move on to a smaller size club in order to get guaranteed game time, there is no doubt that both Madrid’s and Barcelona’s squads will be much the richer for his presence.
