Real Madrid striker Carlos Esp\u00ed has opened up about the whirlwind transfer that took him from Levante to Real Madrid last summer, revealing how close he came to a move to England before the Spanish giants stepped in.\n<\/p>\n
Speaking on Cadena SER\u2019s El Larguero on Wednesday, the young Spanish striker explained the rapid turn of events that changed the course of his career.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cPremier League clubs were ready to sign me\u2026 then Real Madrid appeared and I couldn\u2019t say no,\u201d Esp\u00ed said. \u201cYou can\u2019t reject Real Madrid. The deal was done in 48 hours.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old (born July 2005 in Tavernes de la Valldigna) had enjoyed a breakout campaign with Levante, scoring crucial goals that helped the club and earning recognition as one of La Liga\u2019s top under-23 performers. Interest from Premier League sides was genuine and advanced, but Real Madrid\u2019s intervention, triggered in part by the departure of Gonzalo Garc\u00eda to Fulham and Jos\u00e9 Mourinho\u2019s specific request for a physical, aerial target man, shut everything else down almost overnight. Madrid paid Esp\u00ed\u2019s \u20ac25 million release clause and signed him to a five-year deal running until June 2031.<\/p>\n
The tall (1.94m) centre-forward has since embraced life at the Bernab\u00e9u, even if his minutes have been limited.<\/p>\n
He has already delivered several high-impact performances off the bench, including late goals that earned important points. <\/p>\n
Esp\u00ed made clear his determination to keep fighting for opportunities under Mourinho.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will fight for Real Madrid. I will give my best, everything,\u201d he declared. He also spoke warmly of his relationship with the Portuguese coach: \u201cMourinho cares a lot about me and I\u2019m so happy with him.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
In other comments around the same period, Esp\u00ed has highlighted Mourinho\u2019s combination of closeness and high standards, noting that the manager stays on top of him with both praise and constructive criticism and urges him to make the most of every minute he gets. He has also spoken of learning from teammates such as Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 while remaining ready whenever called upon.\n<\/p>\n
The move still feels surreal for the Valencian. He has described the speed of everything, from the secretive negotiations that even kept family and friends in the dark until the last moment, to adapting to a squad full of world-class talent, as almost overwhelming, but he remains focused on giving everything for the club.\n<\/p>\n
Esp\u00ed\u2019s story is still in its early chapters at Real Madrid, but his attitude and clinical finishing when given the chance have already made him a useful weapon in Mourinho\u2019s squad.\n<\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Real Madrid striker Carlos Esp\u00ed has opened up about the whirlwind transfer that took him from Levante to Real Madrid last summer, revealing how close he came to a move… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}