The Spaniard arrived in English football shortly after Cristiano
Ronaldo, yet the pair's contrasting trajectories since could not be
more stark.
Whenever a major acquisition is sealed it is only natural for
those involved in the deal to err on the side of celebration. No
one ever cautions that a transfer could as easily flop as fly. And
so it was on a winter's day in 2004 when one of the most coveted
young players in Europe was secured for a club record fee at
Arsenal.
The club's deal crackers were thoroughly pleased with themselves
and there was a fair amount of talk that the boy could be better
than another prodigious and expensive Iberian winger who had
recently joined Manchester United. He was a bit of a show pony,
that Cristiano Ronaldo, whereas José Antonio Reyes had apparently
already learned how to be efficient on a football pitch.
Oh.
The risk element of every transfer is epitomised by the contrast
between the current worlds of Ronaldo and Reyes. One is the most
expensive player in the world. The other doesn't know where he is
supposed to show up for pre-season training. At the moment he is
officially owned by Atlético Madrid, who do not really want him.
It's understandable: he played one season for them in 2007-08 but
did not score a single goal and was a painful disappointment.
Benfica, who
had Reyes on loan last season, are dallying about whether or not
they will pay for the remaining 75% of his contract to take him on.
They have already missed some of Atlético's deadlines and are not
giving the impression they are falling over themselves to keep
him.
Reyes's downward spiral began, in a way, the moment he decided
to leave his boyhood club, Sevilla, at the
age of 20. He was a cult hero in Seville, where they had worked
enormously hard to nurture a particularly rough diamond. When he
joined the club at 12 he could barely read or write, and his gypsy
accent made him difficult even for Spaniards to understand clearly.
He was put under the wing of specialist educators and
psychologists, and the rewards came when Reyes emerged as a player
of such promise there were demonstrations and tears when he was
allowed to leave for a fee that was expected to rise to £17m.
Even outside Seville it was an unwelcome move, as the Spanish
were frustrated to see him tempted away from La Liga. There was not
at that time a history of Spanish players adapting well to English
football. Far from it. Although Cesc Fábregas had made his debut
for Arsenal at the age of 16 he was just a pup, and Rafael Benítez
had yet to arrive at Liverpool and begin the impressive stream that
started with Xabi Alonso and Luis García and developed with players
in the stellar mould of Pepe Reina and Fernando Torres.
Although he scored the odd sensational goal, Reyes had a
notoriously awful time in England and never settled on or off the
pitch. Even though his parents came to live with him and his mother
ensured a diet of entirely Andalucian food, he never beat his
homesickness. He detested the weather (his first words when he got
off the plane were "Bloody hell, it's cold here!"). The language
was a disaster.
Matters regressed when he was caught up in the Luis Aragonés
racism scandal. The then Spain manager tried to explain himself in
January 2005 as follows: "All I did was to motivate the gypsy by
telling him he was better than the black. I feel I have been the
victim of a lynching. All I did was try to motivate Reyes comparing
him with [Thierry] Henry and making him see that he was better. I
didn't use the term 'black' with any racist meaning."
Considering Henry's popularity at Arsenal, that created an
intensely awkward situation. A month later, Reyes was the victim of
a prank call that went out on Spanish radio where he thought he was
talking to Real Madrid's sporting director, Emilio Butragueño, and
practically begged to move to the Bernabéu. Eventually he did, as
part of a loan swap deal involving Julio Baptista, but even though
he scored the goal that sealed the 2007 La Liga title, Real did not
wish to keep him permanently. In came Atlético, and he soon found
himself on the slippery slope again.
Reyes now finds himself in limbo. In the past few days – in
addition to the wrangling between Atlético and Benfica – he has
been linked with Everton, Olympiakos, Porto, Roma, Fiorentina ...
Suffice it to say his agent has been in loquacious mood, although
the more soundbites that are reported about where Reyes might be
playing next season, the more they seem to resemble nothing more
than hot air.
