To think, it looked as if Raphinha had made his final, valuable contribution to the Leeds United cause when the Brazil international sealed a £55 million move to Barcelona last summer.
The irony will not go unnoticed, then, if the former Elland Road talisman ends up playing a key, if inadvertent role, in Leeds’ pursuit of a long-term replacement.
According to ESPN, Victor Orta and co are hoping to lure Ilias Akhomach to the rolling hills of West Yorkshire this summer; 12 months after Raphinha went in the other direction. Ilias is out of contract in July, with talks over a new deal stalling.
Leeds United want Barcelona’s ‘new Messi’
And who can blame Ilias, really, if he does not see a pathway into the first-team picture at the Camp Nou? The legendary Xavi Hernandez raised eyebrows aplenty when he handed the Spain U19 international his full La Liga debut in November 2021, against local rivals Espanyol no less.
Flash forward to February 2022, however, and Ilias is arguably further down the pecking order now than he was when making his Camp Nou bow at the age of just 17. After Barcelona found a way around their well-publicised financial issues to bring in Raphinha for an initial £49 million, Ilias’ hopes of more first-team exposure quickly went up in smoke.
The silky forward has not even been included in the matchday squad for any of Barcelona’s 22 La Liga fixtures since Raphinha’s arrival.
“In La Masia, we already have ‘the New Messi’,” former Barca director Patrick Kluivert told Cadena Ser in 2019; highlighting the similarities between Ilias and arguably the greatest footballer who ever lived.
While such comparisons are not exactly helpful – serving only to pile the pressure upon a precocious teenager – they did make sense. Ilias, like a young Messi, loves to cut inside from the right, weaving magic with his wand of a left foot while painting pretty pictures around the opposition penalty area.
Messi may be long gone in Catalonia, of course. But, with that left-footed, right-winger role now filled by Raphinha instead, Ilias may give serious thought to following in the Brazilian’s Elland Road footsteps.
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