Inside Spain is a weekly instalment brought to you by Football España, providing an insight into all of the major stories coming out of the rich and intense climes of La Liga and beyond.
Never a dull Sunday in Spain. After Real Madrid came back from 2-0 down to beat Almeria, aided by three highly controversial VAR interventions, a series of leaks from the VAR room have been published throughout the week.
Those leaks have pertained to several controversial decisions, but unsurprisingly more in favour of Real Madrid, given the leaking entity is a Barcelona-based journalist. As tends to be the case whenever Los Blancos are taking a beating in the press, Barcelona’s bribery case seems to mysteriously find its way back into the headlines.
Not that it should be disregarded all the same. Barcelona are accused of bribery, and until now, the man they are accused of trying to bribe has been ruled out of questioning due to dementia. However that could be about to change, and the testimony of Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira could swing the whole case.
On the pitch things aren’t going much better. Despite excellent performances from 16-year-old Lamine Yamal and 17-year-olds Hector Fort and Pau Cubarsi in their 4-2 win over Real Betis, and then their Copa del Rey quarter-final at San Mames, Athletic Club ran out 4-2 winners themselves after extra time. A scintillating atmosphere, Inaki Williams was eliminated with Ghana on Monday from AFCON, and traveled through the night to get back for the game – and scored the winner.
Inaki Williams is a Basque superhero. pic.twitter.com/b30tWtqp4W
— Football España (@footballespana_) January 25, 2024
Atletico Madrid are on the verge of the semi-finals too, and have good news to report. Barcelona and Arsenal target Arthur Vermeeren is on the verge of completing a €27m move to Los Rojiblancos. The 18-year-old is regarded as one of the most talented youngsters in Europe.
One player who has already graduated to star status is Japan and Real Sociedad forward Takefusa Kubo. He turned down Saudi Arabia this January, and told Liverpool he wouldn’t be moving there either, but that might not be the end of the saga yet. Speaking of sagas, the latest on Kylian Mbappe is that Liverpool are still close behind Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid.
Across the way, Manchester United have been scouting Valencia youngster Javi Guerra since the start of the season, and the 20-year-old is certainly impressing. Yet Guerra has said he wants to remain at Los Che for many years to come.
