Isak’s signing for Newcastle for 70 million was a bomb in the market. The Swedish striker scored six goals last year with Real Sociedad at the age of 22 and has been one of the most millionaire movements in the history of the League, leaving aside the transactions of Barcelona, Atlético and Real Madrid. Also international players like Álvaro Morata, Gerard Moreno or Rodrigo Moreno have a much higher value than the current Zarra Trophy, Raúl de Tomás, whose clause is 75 million and there has been no solid offer less than two days before September 1, which is approaching the twentya figure similar to what Espanyol paid for him.
Raúl de Tomás is international and fights with that list of forwards to attend the next World Cup in Qatar. In two seasons he has scored 40 goals (between First and Second) in all possible ways, because the player has barbaric technical conditions. RdT has scored from penalties, direct free kicks, headers, with the right and with the left, with two touches and one, from midfield and even dribbling past several rivals. He has marked Real Madrid and Barcelona, but not even with those. The club contemplates a transfer in the absence of hours for the closing of the market. The Premier could be his destiny. There has been talk of Sevilla, Atlético or Real Madrid, but nothing conclusive came to the club.
“Too much packaging for what the product is. He is polite and a ten as a person, but sometimes he is above good and evil. His self-centeredness kills him.” explains a scouter expert in the Spanish league and who has followed his career from Real Madrid, a time when he made the leap to the second team at just 18 years old. “You could see that he was very good. In training we said ‘fuck, how do you define it’. He was quick on the head, he had personality. He never hid”says a colleague who belonged to that squad in which RdT began to show its special character.
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“I wanted to be Cristiano, he made his gestures and his poses”
“He was a good boy but I thought about him a lot. He believed that he was the best and started having discussions with the veterans”, Add. In Valdebebas his extravagances were not very well seen. He was, for example, passionate about cars. Every two or three months he changed it. Even, at that time, he made a barter with the former Espanyol player Fernando Marqués. “The first times I went to train with the first team I did it at Ferrari. Ramos told him, what are you doing? Also striking was RdT’s fixation on Cristiano Ronaldo. “I wanted to be a Christian. He made his gestures and poses for him. His personality was complicated. He didn’t quite have a good feeling with his teammates, sometimes when you talked to him he said that he was in his world, that you shouldn’t bother him”.
He was a young RdT who began to chain assignments. The first away from home was at Córdoba. A team that had Florin Andone and Xisco in attack. RdT, who was De Tomás at that time, only started 11 games. “They told me that it was the jewel in the crown of Real Madrid. He played little, he had shoulder problems. The coaching staff generated continuous wear. He didn’t understand why he played less. He is a player that you have to pamper, be on top of, give him affection, I think he is that way because of what he has lived in his life. He wanted to be like Cristiano Ronaldo”, explains a source from that team in the 2015-16 academic year. “I also wanted to take penalties, free kicks, take out and finish off corners. He was a good boy, with a good background, shy and introverted, but perhaps a coach thinks about it when signing him because of the wear and tear he generates“, Add.
After Córdoba, Valladolid and Rayo Vallecano, where he exploded in the First Division and left “a very good image with employees and fans”, which earned him the jump to Benfica. It was his first big opportunity, but it barely lasted five months. Another scouter who works for a European club analyzes the footballer: “He has a very specific profile. Perform more on dominating teams. It has a low sacrificial ability. His age (28 years old) and his price do not match. There are problems like his mentality, extravagance… There are extra-sports issues that transcend “, bill. “I think too much attention is paid to not pushing. Not all players can be complete, then he scores the goals he scores for you, there are few like him in what he does, although it is clear that he is a player who conditions the way you play, ”says a former teammate.
Espanyol desperately rescued RdT for 22.5 million in the 2020 winter market. A personal bet by Francisco Rufete that did not prevent relegation. The pandemic arrived, the championship was stopped and the footballers had to continue training at home. There came a first big problem that began to deteriorate his relationship with his teammates. “You have to know how to take it, keep it happy and be on its ground. If you don’t give him what he wants, you can have a bad time, as he did to Abelardo… ”. The Madrid forward did not connect to the virtual training sessions they did in those months and in which the rest of the group did participate. “He had his physical trainer and he did the work with him. But then we saw that he was not up to the pace of the rest and he had problems with his knee ”, bill. In the first four games after the break he only played 62 minutes.
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“With Moreno he scored 40 goals and reached the National Team”
After that tragic sporting moment, that of relegation, the man from Madrid changed representatives to try to leave and not play in the Second Division (as happened to many players), but finally, after seeing his wishes impossible, he stayed with Vicente Moreno for two years. The man from Madrid had problems in the locker room, as the captains Diego López and David López made him see, so, for the hygiene of the group, it was Vicente Moreno himself who was directly in charge of managing the situation. “Leave it to me,” he said.
“He scored 40 goals in two years, Vicente took advantage of him. All that you want to speculate after… 40 goals and the Spanish National Team. The deal was what it had to be for that performance. Moreno managed a top player to perform like a top player. He did an extraordinary job, and he should have a different treatment with him as he has with all the players”, argues a person close to the previous coach. The tension on the bench at the Santiago Bernabéu symbolized the end of the Valencian stage and also that of a way of managing the Madrilenian that helped him to be the star of the team. Vicente Moreno was the coach who most understood the personality of RdT, to the detriment of not putting out fires that were burning in the locker room.
Now all the circumstances lead to his goodbye. The footballer wants to play for a club that competes in Europe, Diego Martínez prioritizes other values and another profile of players and Espanyol needs to free up salary bills to reinforce the squad. “Among sports leaders or directors there are many conversations. And the particularities of the footballers are discussed. He is a special player, plus there are other points. His salary is high, he must fit the conditions of the transfer or sale, and he is a player who must be the star of the team. He needs a coach who believes in him.” explains a former sports director.
“De Tomás is like Osvaldo”, sentence the oldest of Sant Adrià. A gifted soccer player, a locker room rebel, who due to age, profile and that way of being that the world of soccer knows and that many coaches fear, runs out of the hourglass of his time at Espanyol if, finally, it materializes the offer that all parties want.
