Puado, from pumpkins to Madrid to a priority renovation

On 13 minutes and 13 seconds Javi Puado broke in in the headlines of the day. In the eyes of the soccer planet. It is the time that he spent, last Saturday, in score a hat-trick against Las Palmas that, in addition, leaves Espanyol at the gates of promotion to First Division. There where the youth squad will play yes or yes next season. So the priority of all the actors in this plot is to define the future of an attacker that has been revealed in this first quarter of 2021 and that the contract ends in one year.

Espanyol tried to anticipate its more than likely emergence when, three months ago, he submitted an offer to renew it to their representatives, who called on the club to resume talks once the objective had been achieved, that is, promotion. A logical answer. The fear from the parakeet point of view is the siren's songs, bidirectional movements between representatives and clubs, which after their extraordinary performances, may be arriving in this period. What they do have in favor, a priori, is the Puado's good predisposition to continue wearing the Espanyol shirt. And, probably, with the intention of removing the thorn from have not yet been able to shine as a blue and white in the First Division, where he debuted two seasons ago with Joan Francesc Ferrer 'Rubi' and played 15 games, but without significance.

Not in vain, the path of Puado has given many swings until this 2021 of unanimous praise. He signed for Espanyol in 2014, from Cornellà, and quickly went to Juvenil A. And from there, to the subsidiary. But in the 2016-17 season he suffered a serious cruciate ligament injury. Not even that stopped him: in June he renewed his current contract until 2022, and a few weeks later Quique Sánchez Flores took him to the preseason of the first team, with which he scored his first goal -in Olot- and, at 18, He drew the attention of Real Madrid so much that his loan to Castilla was made. Announced even informally.

He was the then coach of Espanyol B, David Gallego, who went on to affirm at the end of August 2017 that “the player has reached an agreement with Madrid”. And, really, it was the parakeet club itself, and more specifically its president, Chen Yansheng, who truncated, surely well advised, a loan with a purchase option of four million.

There is no doubt that having grown up with a soccer father –Francisco Puado He made his debut in Primera with Osasuna 30 years ago, and also played in Salamanca, Sant Andreu, L'Hospitalet or Vilassar–, it helped him quickly understand that the career of an athlete would not be a bed of roses. Even with a professional record, and after the premiere with Rubi, precisely Gallego did not count on him last season and, On the advice of the current sports director, Francisco Joaquín Pérez Rufete, he agreed to leave on loan –this time, yes– to Real Zaragoza.

In La Romareda it began to emerge, with four goals and one assist, but especially with the minutes and the self-confidence that an attacker needed He started at the top, who connects perfectly as a midfielder and who moves intelligently on the wings and sacrifices himself defensively. Another Puado returned from Zaragoza, and Espanyol's relegation did the rest so that, with the arrival of Vicente Moreno, he would go from being discarded to feeling more important every day.

Now it carries a whopping ten goals and six assists, the majority achieved in this 2021 that smiles at him. So much that in the first group of the final phase of the European Under-21, disputed last March, was not only summoned, but also started all three games – against Slovenia, Italy and the Czech Republic -, scored a goal and led the vanguard of a Spanish team that will count on him indisputably in the second and final phase. And who knows if for the Tokyo Olympics. By then, in principle, your fate will have been resolved. The one with the shirt that he will wear, because his personal looks very good wherever he is.