After a week when I overheard a woman in the supermarket tell her friend “Organic vegetables are just like ordinary vegetables except the organic ones have dirt on them !” – Real Mallorca fans heard the news on Wednesday, after two months of palaver, that negotiations had culminated in the signing of 6’2” 28-year-old Canadian/Jamaican striker Cyle Larin from second division club Valladolid. Mallorca have paid 7.2 million euros plus bonuses that can raise the operation to 8.3 million euros. He arrived in Palma on Wednesday night.
The player will earn around 3 million euros per season for the next five years. He will be one of the best paid in the squad, below Muriqi who earns just over four. Valladolid retains a small capital gain in the event of any future transfer involving the player. Larin’s stats in Spain are good with 18 games played, 8 goals scored and three assists.
Born in Brampton, Ontario, Larin has dual Canadian/Jamaican nationality, which means he isn’t classed as a non EU player because of something called the Cotonou ruling.
Unfortunately Larin arrives without having a pre-season and it looks unlikely he’ll make the squad for our first La Liga game next weekend, which will be the coach’s decision nearer the time. He spent several weeks going through bureaucratic procedures in Jamaica and has only done light training and gym work.
Larin has been coach Aguirre’s main preference in attack for a long time and we now have a strike force to be reckoned with, featuring two attackers described in one Spanish sports paper as “battering rams” !
After college football in Canada, Larin went to MLS club Orlando City (where between 2015/17 he scored 87 times) before moving to Turkish side Besiktas. In 87 appearances beside the Bosphorus he scored 31 goals. He then moved to Champions League side Club Brugge in Belgium before being loaned out to Valladolid. They signed him two months ago on a full-time contract and he’s left them because he doesn’t want to play second division football. There’s loads more information on him available on You Tube.
Despite everything, the arrival of Larin will by no means close our dealings in the transfer market. In another major operation, a midfielder to replace Galarreta is expected and director of football Pablo Ortells has several names on his list. The question is : Will he be Spanish or a foreigner ? Whoever it is, the deal could well be our last in this Summer transfer window.
Real Mallorca will play another friendly game on Sunday August 6 against Italian Serie B side Spezia in the Son Bibiloni sports complex at 18:30, live on IB3 TV. That will be the last pre-season kick-about before the real stuff starts the following Saturday away at newly-promoted Las Palmas, kick off 19:30.
La Liga has new sponsors in EA Sports FC (EA is short for Electronic Arts), one of the leaders in football entertainment. They will have the naming rights for all La Liga competitions, in what is a complete rebrand of La Primera, including all logos and graphics, fonts and other visual elements. The Spanish second division is now called La Liga Hypermotion.
Real Mallorca’s business CEO Alfonso Diaz gave an interesting interview last week. In it he talks about how the club is growing both on and off the pitch. The club are hoping to arrange a friendly, possibly in January, against PSG to inaugurate the “new” Son Moix.
The club’s ticket sales have been impressive as they reach 17,000 subscribers and the next step is to become a solid “top 10” side in La Liga. He said “We are now in the situation where we can bring in higher level players, we need to have a step up in quality.”
Sr Diaz finished by saying that one problem they have is that Vedat Muriqi’s family are not living permanently here. Spain doesn’t recognise Kosovo as a country and “El Pirata’s” family are finding it difficult to get the required permits. “It’s a situation that we’re looking into, to see if we can do anything to make things easier,” Diaz concluded.
With transfer deadline day looming on September 1, many clubs are trying to strengthen their squads. A big problem on the horizon is that the Arab transfer market doesn’t end until the end of September. Saudi Arabia seem to be hoovering up players every day. Clubs can have all their new signings in place by then, but there’s still a major threat from Saudi Arabia to carry on nicking players for vast sums of money. Money and football have had an uneasy cohabitation ever since Middlesbrough paid Sunderland £1,000 (£96,000 at today’s rate) for Alf Common in 1910 – a fee thought back then as absurd for a mere footballer!
AND FINALLY, Valencia FC are taking steps to stop fans eating “pipas” (sunflower seeds) in the ground on match days as the custom of spitting out the shells is causing sanitation problems, as it appears rats like to eat them. The club are to ask fans not to consume them on match days and plan to stop sales of them in the ground. Crunching on pipas during a game and spitting out the shells is considered an art form in Spanish football and to ask “crunchers” to bring a bag to deposit the shells just won’t work ! There’s a young man who sits in our row at the Son Moix who gets through bagfuls during a game and he’s ankle deep in shells by full time !