There are footballers who are born predestined to succeed. Then, a good environment and good training must accompany them, fall in the right place to be able to develop and make all the game they carry shine shine. That is what happens with Nico Melamed, who at 20 will live his first full season in LaLiga after two seasons of settlement at Espanyol, key last year in achieving promotion with his verticality and decisive goals.
International in the lower categories, endowed with intuitive qualities to dribble, mark and see the spaces, the one from Castelldefels already debuted in the 2019-20 campaign endorsed first by David Gallego, one of his fetish technicians, who gave him the alternative in the Europa League preview against Lucerna. His dribbles have already turned RCDE Stadium upside down. He had to wait for the final stretch of the championship, with an already evicted Espanyol, to debut in LaLiga. Francisco Rufete gave him minutes.
His quality did not go unnoticed by Vicente Moreno, who finally made him play 36 matches, 13 of them started, and in which he scored six goals, some determining factors such as 0-1 against Sabadell, 2-2 against Mirandés or 2-1 against Leganés on his birthday. Melamed also showed its versatility. He played on the left or behind the striker, always understanding his role, connecting with the attackers (he gave three assists) and taking advantage of the spaces.
This season, both the sports management and the coach understand that Melamed must become an icon of the first team and that he is ready to settle in the starting team. With Raúl de Tomás and Adrián Embarba as attack references, the role of Melamed will also depend on Javi Puado and the signing that the sports direction intends to carry out in attack. Despite this, Melamed can occupy the midfielder or be an alternative on the sides. Then its performance will determine its continuity.
After renewing last October and getting promoted, the player now has a clause of 25 million, and at Espanyol they are convinced that the midfielder faces an important year in his career in which he can begin to demonstrate his conditions in the First Division . In a market without movements, the jump of Melamed will compensate the lack of reinforcements in case the desired ones are not produced by the salary limit.