As teams prepare for their summer business, few midfielders look quite as much as a bargain as Sergi Darder.
The Espanyol captain has been relegated with Los Pericos, but that is in spite of his super-human efforts to keep them up, at times winning them points on his own.
Reportedly, he has a similar clause to that of Joselu Mato, which would allow a La Liga club willing to pay 100% of his wages to take him on loan next season without a fee were Espanyol to be relegated.
Atletico Madrid have been linked with Darder previously as it was, but it is no suprise that a number of Sporting Directors’ ears have pricked up at that information, if that is the case.
Diario de Mallorca (via ED) say that four more teams will make their pitches to Darder this summer as well as potentially Atletico, consisting of Sevilla, Villarreal and Valencia. The fifth team in the equation is Real Mallorca.
While on the face of it they have neither the prestige nor the budget nor the aspirations of the others, Javier Aguirre has put together a well-run operation. It also has the pull of home. Before moving to Malaga as a teenager to pursue his career, Darder was born in and grew up on the island of Mallorca.
