Espanyol’s greatest successes throughout its history have been carried out by a base of players from the house. However, for some time now, the homegrown players have not played such a leading role in the first team and for this reason they hesitate to continue, to such an extent that many of them decide to leave or the club sells them for derisory amounts. The latest case is that of Luca Koleosho, an American by birth who plays for Italy, and who, like Adrià Pedrosa or Víctor Gómez did before, left the club this summer.
A week ago the British press announced that Luca Koleosho, an 18-year-old winger from Espanyol, would sign for English Burnley in exchange for 3 million euros. Yesterday, the club made it official. International under-19 with Italy, Koleosho is the player with the greatest projection of Espanyol B. In fact, if it weren’t for his injuries, he probably would have had a greater role in the first team last year.
It happens that Koleosho, who arrived at the club in 2020, had one year left on his contract and does not see a projection at Espanyol. The club failed to convince by playing earlier and with a relegation shrinking his wage bill, he was forced to sell to get something positive out of a player whose value could rise significantly in a few years.
Koleosho is just the tip of an iceberg that has been building due to the lack of orderly management at the club. Before him, Adrià Pedrosa left for free at Sevilla this summer after not accepting a renewal offer. The club did not find a sale last summer and the disaster was consummated. A year earlier, the winger and De Tomás were the players with the best market. None left the expected amount in the club’s coffers with the consequent decapitalization that this entails.
Another paradigmatic case is that of Víctor Gómez, a 23-year-old winger, a starter with the U-21 team, transferred this summer to Braga for two million euros. Olesa de Montserrat’s man had a very positive impact in the relegation year, but after that the club decided to loan him out to Mirandés and Málaga consecutively. Finally, Domingo Catoira decided to transfer him to the Portuguese Braga with a purchase option. The winger was an outstanding player in the Portuguese team, which finished third in their league, and they decided to take him as their own. Espanyol is now looking for a right-back to compete with Oscar Gil.
Faced with all these cases, the parakeet fan wonders what will happen to Pol Lozano and Nico Melamed. Both contract ends next year and must be very important in Luis García’s team that fights for promotion.
