Barcelona youngster made his big breakthrough at weekend.
Carles Alena made his big breakthrough for Barcelona at the weekend.
The 20-year-old scored in Barcelona’s win over Villarreal, showing why Premier League sides Tottenham and Newcastle made plays to sign him.
Both teams tried in 2017 to sign Alena, with Tottenham coming closest, with Spanish newspaper AS reporting their interest.
Alena ended up renewing his contract with Barcelona, but has spent most of him time in their B team.
Maurico Pochettino was spotted watching Barcelona B last month during the international break, and Alena was in action then.
Any hopes that he could be tempted to still move to Spurs due to a lack of progress have now been dashed by his call up to the first team.
Alena has featured for the first team before, but only briefly and had little to show for it.
This time he scored an important goal, assisted by Lionel Messi.
The midfielder is just getting started, and this was a pivotal moment for him.
Tottenham and Newcastle appear to have missed their window, and can only wonder what might have been.
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