The 2024/25 season has felt as two clearly different campaigns for Real Betis Balompie. “Always look at Betis?” Well, not before January.
Most believe that the arrival of the Brazilian wing player Antony, on loan of Manchester United, has taken care of a change from Betis that the Verdiblancos could see for the second time in club history for the Champions League qualify for the Champions League – indeed, Isco. Isco.
Although the Champions League opportunities of Betis have taken a hit in the 2-1 loss of Sunday for Villarreal, the rise of teenage wing Jesus Rodriguez is further testify to the power of Manuel Pellegrini in the development of talent in the midst of Betis' constant financial issues.
A resident of Seville considered a huge potential when he went through the youth of the club, Rodriguez scored seven goals for Betis' B team a season ago in the fourth level, and he debuted in La Liga on first December, starting and played in a 2-0 loss at Real Sociedad. Six weeks later he scored his first (only so far) goal for the first team against Alaves, so that he cut open space to his right top for a long -distance shot that found his way (somehow). Since then he has rarely been out of the line-up and he scored his first European goal to limit a neat movement of a complication, when Betis defeated Jagellonia Bialystok last week in the quarterfinals of the Europa Conference League Quarterfinal. The defeat on Sunday against Villarreal was the first time in more than two months that Betis lost a match that started Rodriguez.
Rodriguez became 19 in November, and you can see why Pellegrini immediately saw a preferences of him: he has extrapolated a really unique profile to Wingers in Europe's top seven competitions. In order to play left and right, this is a player who already wears progressive in progressive per 90 minutes (98th percentile), successful recording (96th percentile) and 'attacking actions' that include shots and crosses in addition to completed drops (90th percentile). With his speed he has the confidence to hire everyone – see him dripping through the Sevilla defense in El Gran Derbi earlier this month – and he works hard from the ball to make tackles and interceptions.
Rodriguez, just like midfielder Sergi Altimira, recently agreed a renewal of 2029, while Betis tries to ward off the Premier League interest in the for a while longer. If the club finds a way to keep Antony for a permanent deal, this is one of the more dynamic wide tandems of Spain in 2025/26, certainly the key to the constant hunt of the Verdiblancos to return to the Champions League after two decades.
In Mestalla on Friday evening squared resurent Valencia in the right against struggling Sevilla in another “story of two seasons” Matchup, just on the other side of the table. Where Seville had stuck a matter of months ago on the edge of the European places, Valencia continued to flirt with a historic relegation – that is, until the controversial owner Peter Lim Carlos Corberan was free from his West Bromwich Albion contract.
Corberan's return to Valencia – where he once turned out to be the B team of the club as a keeper – merged with Los Che who rooted in shape. Unbelievable, their 1-0 win over Sevilla took them nine points from the drop, and only Barcelona (undefeated everywhere in 2025) has picked up more points in LaLiga since Corberan took over in Mestalla in January; Valencia is now even closer to the European places than the drop zone.
Their goal Friday evening came from the 22-year-old Javi Guerra, for a long time to be promoted as a potential star that came from the Valencia Academy. Deep in the first half of the time, the long, lanky midfielder kept his balance sheet and his cool-up to fire a shot with the right foot that left itself beyond the distant post of Orjan Nyland.
“At the end I was sure that I would cut back, but my supporting foot slipped out,” said Guerra on Friday evening. “Fortunately I was able to score the goal. I am very happy because I hadn't scored for a long time.”
It was just Guerra's second goal of 2024/25, and he should have added another in the second half, that effort that deposited instead. Yet Guerra and the more defensive Enzo Barrechea have formed an excellent partnership in Corberan's Double Pivot, one balancing of the other Guerra is the line breaker, the strong ball-carier that gallop from box to box, while Barrenechea De Duels wins, steps in the breaking and the game and the game in the breaking and the game in the game and the competition in the game and the competition in the game and the game in the breaking and the game and the pres.
Guerra was close to moving to Atletico Madrid last year, but Atleticas simultaneously striving for Conor Gallagher complicated the transfer. Now to be about his contract for two years, Guerra should have more frees this summer, and it is time to paste or to do it for Valencia – will the new President Kiat Lim have him signed for a new contract as a pillar for the future of Los Che? Or will the son of Peter Lim go after his father and sell at any price?
Whatever happens to Javi Guerra and Jesus Rodriguez this summer, the growth of these two players shows that the conveyor belt of Young Spanish talent works great. There is plenty of proof that concept in Barcelona – Lamine Yamal is perhaps the best player on the planet by the time of the World Cup next year – and in the growth of Pablo Barrios in Atletico, or Mikel Jauregizar at Athletic Club, or Bournemouth's Wonderkid Dean Huijsen in his debut for the National Team last month. Such an abundance of young players, many of them who stay at home in the domestic league of the country, points to exciting times ahead of La Liga.
Comments