Bottom of the table and cut adrift, Levante had little to play for but personal pride when Elche came to town this weekend.
But Jorge de Frutos was never going to take another devastating defeat lying down. If Levante’s season is football’s equivalent to 2016’s Suicide Squad – a talented cast stumbling along, half-hearted and haphazard – then De Frutos is their very own Harley Quinn. Exciting, alluring and eminently watchable.
Levante hammered Elche 3-0 on Friday night. And even those on merely nodding terms with the La Liga relegation battle will not be surprised to learn that De Frutos was front and centre in the Castellon club’s biggest win – and best performance – of a fraught campaign.
He set up the first, crossing for Jose Luis Morales after a trademark burst of acceleration. De Frutos scored the second himself, refusing to give up on a lost cause, snatching back possession and finishing neatly.
‘Refusing to give up on a lost cause’. It’s a neat metaphor for De Frutos’ performances as a whole as Levante continue to circle the relegation plughole.
“I try to help,” says De Frutos, refusing to accept that relegation is a foregone conclusion (El Desmarque).
“Today, it was a goal and an assist. And I hope that in the next match is the same. The truth is that it has been a very hard few months.
“There is still a long way to go. But we are together, with our fans. They have believed from the beginning that we are going to get out of this.”
Can Levante survive?
It’s amazing really, given Levante have spent almost the entirety of the season nailed to the bottom and recently went a record-breaking 24 La Liga games without a win, that only two players in the division (Karim Benzema being one of them) have set up more goals than De Frutos in 2021/22 (seven).
In fact, he could actually end this season with more goals (4) and more assists (9) than he managed last term. A brilliant breakthrough campaign which saw De Frutos linked with big-money moves to Real Madrid, AS Roma and Southampton.
The road leads to St Mary’s
A year ago (Mirror, 28 February, page 67), Ralph Hasenhuttl’s Saints held talks with De Frutos regarding a move to St Mary’s.
The 25-year-old has a £25 million release clause in his contract. But, with Levante facing a precarious financial situation and still heading down, the Spanish speedster should be available for a damn sight less this time around.
De Frutos doesn’t deserve to suffer the ignominy of relegation. Even if the same cannot be said for the rest of the rabble at Levante’s Ciutat de Valencia stadium.
It’s uncertain whether Southampton plan to renew their interest, 12 months on. But one things for sure, De Frutos is far better than the Segunda.
He proved that on Friday.
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