17 year-old Abel Ruiz, currently playing for Barcelona B, is reportedly attracting attention from Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal.
The young striker, who can create as well as score goals, and who has been playing in the under-17s World Cup In India, is regarded as one of Spain’s hottest young prospects, and Barcelona are very keen to hang on to a player they poached from Valencia’s youth academy when he was just 11 years old.
The young Spaniard is keen to stay with the Catalan club. However, with a £3 million release clause in his current contract which expires in 2019, one of the Premier League trio may try and tempt Ruiz away from Barcelona by offering him a faster route to first-team football than he can expect at the Nou Camp.
Ruiz has been compared to such strikers as Marco van Basten and Robert Lewandowski – direct forwards with good aerial ability.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.