Introducing La Liga's next superstar ... Racing Santander's Sergio Canales
He's technically gifted, good-looking and, after two goals against Sevilla, the 18-year-old 'marvel' has the Spanish drooling
Saturday afternoon in Islington and Everton's Steven Pienaar is scooping the ball expertly, delicately over Arsenal's goalkeeper, Manuel Almunia, and into the net. A thousand miles away, a slight, pale teenager in a black tracksuit with green trim, RACING emblazoned across his chest, watches it on Televisión Española from his hotel room at the NH Convenciones in Seville. The commentator takes a deep breath and emits a long, drawn-out ¡gooooooool! He pauses. ¡Gol! ¡Gol! ¡Gol! ¡Gol! It is, he says, a golazo, a great goal. "Brilliant," says his co-commentator. And the teenager agrees; it is. But he can't help thinking that he could do better.
So he does.
The final whistle goes in north London. Sergio Canales Madrazo pulls the card from that little slot by the door, leaves his room, hops on the bus, travels three kilometres and alights at the Sánchez Pizjuán. As he goes through the metal gate into the stadium, he looks up at the tiled mosaic on the façade with its carefully reproduced Arsenal shield, like some kind of premonition, continues beyond the cracked wooden doors of the dressing room and slowly pulls on his kit. Green and black. Racing de Santander. No27. This week, for only the third time ever, he runs out with the starting XI; 26 minutes later he runs beyond the Sevilla defence.
He is faced by Andrés Palop but in his mind's eye it is two and a half hours earlier and he's faced by Almunia. "I thought of Pienaar's goal," he admits later. Palop advances and, from the edge of the penalty area, Canales lifts it over him and into the net, the ball travelling higher and further than Pienaar's shot had – the perfect "Vaseline". So smooth, so calm, slipped in so casually. It is a great goal. A golazo. Up in the stands, the fans start to applaud – the Sevilla fans. "He plays as if he was in the hallway of his house," remarks Roberto Palomar, "his heart rate never went over 40bpm." "¡Madre mía!" shouts the radio commentator, "What a goal! What little fear! What coolness! The confidence of this lad is insulting!"
Thirteen minutes later, he's through again. Palop advances once more, not so far this time. Once bitten twice shy. Canales steps past the keeper, pauses, cuts inside, sending Adriano screeching by like a cartoon character off a cliff, and side-foots the ball home. "¡Qué bueno que veniste!" shouts the commentator. How nice of you to come! "Has this kid got no shame?!" "Canales dresses up as Maradona," cheers Marca. This time the applause is an ovation; when he is substituted, with Racing enjoying a 2-1 lead they will hold on to, the stadium is on its feet. Soon, everyone's talking about him: he's the personality of the weekend in Sport, AS and Marca. "Suddenly, there's Canales," says El Mundo.
Perhaps not so suddenly. Canales has stood out since he joined Racing at 11; so too, his 15-year-old younger brother, currently playing for local club Albericia. When he was 12, the organisers of a local football competition were petitioned to change the rules in order to hand him the MVP award, so overwhelming was his superiority. At U17 he was a European champion with Spain; at U18, he was player of the tournament at the Copa Atlántico – an unofficial European Championship. In Cantabria, they have eagerly awaited him; his coaches have long talked about him.
But talk is cheap. Not until Racing Santander sacked their coach, Juan Carlos Mandiá, and replaced him with Miguel Angel Portugal did anyone risk playing him and few expected them to: Canales doesn't even appear in the 2009-10 guide books. Last season, under Juan Ramón López Muñiz, he made six sub appearances, playing just over 100 minutes; this season, Mandiá gave him two chances: 15 minutes against Getafe with the side already 4-1 down and 19 minutes against Zaragoza. Racing trailed 2-0 when Canales came on; they drew 2-2. Yet still he didn't get another chance until Portugal's first game in charge when Racing, down in the relegation zone, faced Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu.
He should have done. Canales is not the only change Portugal has made (and Racing did beat Xerez without him); but he is the most significant. Where Mandiá turned all Henry VIII, frantically chopping and changing and still not getting the result he wanted, using 25 different players but winning just one in 10, Portugal has brought continuity. Mostly the football hasn't been sparkling but it has been effective. One win in ten under Mandiá has become five wins in six under Portugal; from the relegation zone, they now find themselves 12th.
The defence is settled, the system clear, the mistakes eradicated; they have reduced the huge gaps between defence and midfield and, especially, midfield and attack, where Canales links Gonzalo Colsa and Mehdi Lacen, essentially workers, with a forward they previously only saw in the distance. They pressure high, play with greater intensity and make life difficult for opponents. Even injuries have been kind, Fabio Coltorti replacing Toño – or Coño as his curly-lettered shirt had it – in goal. Above all, though, there is Canales – technically gifted, visionary, ludicrously calm. Against Madrid, he came on and scored a coolly taken equaliser only to have it wrongly disallowed. Against Espanyol, he made his first ever start and scored twice in a 4-0 win. Against Tenerife, his second start, they won 2-0. He's started three times and scored four - as many as Fredi Kanouté, Alvaro Negredo and Giuseppe Rossi, more than Raúl or Kaká.
No wonder they're getting excited – even if Portugal, conscious of Canales's physical limitations, has used him sparingly and as a media punta without defensive obligations. His team-mate Pedro Pinillos calls him a "monster"; Xisco describes him as a "marvel". This kid, he insists, "is incredible". "It's not often you get to witness the birth of a true star, still less a Spanish one," writes David Gistau. "We should circle the date he made his appearance." His coach says he reminds him of a young Rafa van der Vaart; others have likened him to Julen Guerrero, the Athletic Bilbao playmaker whose mania swept the country; some suggest he's like Guti.
But fear not. Because if Canales has Guti's technique he doesn't have his supreme daftness. He should not be an unfulfilled promise like Guti or, hopefully, disappear like Guerrero. Because, as everyone keeps insisting, while many footballers are an empty warehouse with broken windows and a wonky chair, Canales has "a fully furnished head". Still only 18, outwardly timid, there's a look of early Luke Skywalker about him – a small spattering of spots, floppy blondish hair, slight, a little short to be a stormtrooper. Every day, gaggles of girls hang around Racing's training ground waiting for him but as he passes in his Peugeot 207, off to collect his girlfriend from school, ready for his economics lessons, preparing for his exams, Canales is not for turning. He doesn't have an agent, there are no tattoos, no piercing and not a glob of hair gel. He is, writes Alfredo Matilla, "the son-in-law everyone mother wants".
In short, he's too good to be true. And when something's too good to be true it's normally because it is too good to be true. Canales's contract is up at the end of the season. Somehow, Racing didn't offer him a new deal until it was too late. In July he can walk away for free. He can already talk to other clubs. Last week, he did; last week, he talked to Sevilla. When Racing fans gave him an ovation, they did so with a heavy heart; when Sevilla fans gave him an ovation, they did so in the hope and the belief that they were witnessing the birth of a superstar. Their star. Sergio Canales is good. Very, very good. Sadly, for Racing Santander he's probably too good to be true.
