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Barca presidential candidate eager to appoint Monchi – a look at the Sevilla chief´s transfer hits a

SoccerNews in La Liga 30 Dec 2020

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Barcelona presidential candidate Agusti Benedito has outlined his plans to bring in transfer guru Monchi should he succeed Josep Maria Bartomeu in next month’s elections.

Monchi is arguably the most revered sporting director in football thanks to his impressive business across two stints with Sevilla, either side of a less successful spell with Roma.

And Benedito, who has twice run unsuccessfully for the club’s presidency, would happily give Monchi free rein to revolutionise Barca’s transfer policy.

“We met in 2015 several times with Koeman and he had strong ideas. I think he will open a spell that lasts several years at the helm,” Benedito told Goal. 

“In terms of sporting direction, back then we bet on Monchi and we spoke to him, too. I still think he is in the top three in the world and would be a brilliant addition.

“Back then it seemed he would never leave Sevilla and then he went to Italy and came back. The first thing I will do if I am president will be to call Monchi and try to convince him.”

But would Monchi really be the right fit for Barca, who are clearly in need of some sort of overhaul? We look at his transfer hits and misses across two decades working behind the scenes.

THE HITS

Dani Alves

Alves was plucked from the obscurity of Bahia while still a teenager, initially joining Sevilla on loan before signing permanently for a reported €550,000 fee.

The attacking full-back formed a fine partnership on the right with Jesus Navas and played a crucial role in back-to-back UEFA Cup triumphs. 

He joined Barcelona for €41.5m in 2008, winning every title possible in one of the greatest eras in the club’s history, before spells with Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and Sao Paolo.

Freddie Kanoute

In the Premier League with West Ham and Tottenham, Kanoute was effective but by no means a star.

Sevilla were said to have parted with €6.5m to bring him to Spain, and after a decent first season, he really found his groove with 21 LaLiga strikes in the 2006-07 campaign. 

He formed one of the best striker partnerships in Europe with Luis Fabiano and was vital in their back-to-back UEFA Cup triumphs. The club never turned his form into a transfer profit, but he became a Sevilla icon and one of their greatest ever players.

Ivan Rakitic 

A little like with Kanoute, Monchi brought Rakitic to Sevilla when the midfielder appeared to be struggling to live up to his early promise. The club paid Schalke just €2.5m for the Croatian in January 2011 and the midfielder enjoyed an excellent first few months. 

His first full season showed why doubts about him had arisen in Germany, as he failed to score a single goal in LaLiga, but Unai Emery’s arrival in the 2012-13 campaign saw his fortunes transform.

The following season Rakitic inspired Europa League success, earning his €18m move to Barcelona where he enjoyed great success before returning to Sevilla in September.

Ever Banega

The early years of Banega’s career were mired by fitness issues and negative headlines, such as the time he ran himself over with his own car.

When he first joined Sevilla in 2014, there was an air of ‘now or never’ for the gifted Argentina international, who cost just €2.5m as Valencia reportedly just wanted rid of him. 

After a slow start he became one of the first names on the team sheet, playing arguably the best football of his career and winning two Europa Leagues. He left for Inter in 2016 but returned a year later, with Monchi counting him as one of his best buys.

Jules Kounde

Monchi returned for a second spell with Sevilla in 2019 and, perhaps needing to prove himself again after his underwhelming stay in Rome, he pulled off another transfer coup by bringing in Kounde from Bordeaux for a reported €25m.

That is a substantially higher fee than the other names mentioned, granted, but it is a club-record transfer that has more than paid off thus far.

The centre-back was a key member of Sevilla’s latest Europa League-winning squad and attracted interest from numerous clubs during the close season, with his valuation said to have doubled in the space of a year.

THE MISSES

Patrik Schick

Monchi spent around €230m on a raft of signings while at Roma as they looked to replace the likes of Mohamed Salah, Alisson Becker, Antonio Rudiger and Leandro Parades.

The biggest single outlay was on Schick, who struggled to justify his transfer fee – and the hype surrounding his arrival – in his two whole seasons at the Stadio Olimpico.

Schick headed to the Bundesliga in 2019, initially on loan with RB Leipzig before joining Bayer Leverkusen permanently earlier this year for another large fee.

Javier Pastore

Arguably the most disappointing of Monchi’s signings, Pastore struggled to adapt to life under Eusebio Di Francesco and little has changed since Paulo Fonseca took over last year.

He started a combined 12 Serie A games in his first two seasons with the club and has yet to play a single minute in all competitions this term.

What made the transfer all the more bizarre for a player past his prime was that Monchi awarded him a five-year deal, making it difficult for the Italian side to offload him.

Steven Nzonzi

This was a signing that perhaps made sense on the face of it as Nzonzi followed Monchi from Sevilla to Roma. He was part of France’s successful World Cup squad a month earlier – but it proved to be another example of Roma splashing out big on a player with little resale value.

Nzonzi was a shadow of the player many hoped he would be in the Italian capital and he lasted just one full season before heading out on loan to Galatasaray and then Rennes, all while still on Roma’s books.

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