Former Tottenham Hotspur director Ramon Planes admits that the told the Premier League giants to sign Marco Asensio before the Spain international joined Real Madrid, speaking to Mundo Deportivo.
Is one of the most naturally talented footballers of his generation finally making up for lost time at the Santiago Bernabeu?
Cutting inside onto his trusty left boot, Asensio took aim and fired a stunning shot into the top corner of the Alaves net, breaking the visitor’s brave resistance while dragging Real Madrid three points closer to another La Liga title.
That was Asensio’s ninth of the season.
And, after a prolonged spell on the sidelines, the 26-year-old is starting to remind us all why, not so long ago, some were labelling him a future Ballon D’Or winner.
Why Zinedine Zidane said he had the best left foot since Lionel Messi.
Why did Tottenham not sign Marco Asensio?
Asensio exploded onto the scene in the 2016/17 season, scoring a typically wondrous goal in the 4-1 Champions League final thrashing of Juventus.
Though Planes knew, even before Asensio joined Real Madrid, that this was a player with a massive future ahead of him at the very top level.
“I watched a Zaragoza vs Mallorca match and I was amazed at a player named Marco Asensio,” says Planes, Tottenham’s sporting director from 2014 to 2015.
“And in the car park at La Romareda (Zaragoza’s stadium) I called my superiors at Tottenham to tell him that he had to be signed.”
Planes would be disappointed, however, as Real Madrid snapped up the Mallorca wonderkid for a fee in the region of £3 million.
Though this was not the last time Planes would miss out on one of Europe’s most exciting young talent. He adds that, during his time at Barcelona, the Catalan kings missed out on both Dusan Vlahovic and Manuel Locatelli, while also coming ‘very close’ to signing Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez (Sport).
Who’d be a sporting director, hey?
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