Football, and particularly transfers, is all about missed opportunities and sliding doors moments and it seems one of those for Liverpool centres around Real Madrid duo Marco Asensio and Dani Ceballos.
That’s according to AS, who cover the pair today and how they could have ended up at Anfield before moving to the Bernabeu.
The newspaper reports that back in 2014, Liverpool had Asensio ‘within reach’ after identifying him as a youngster at Mallorca.
They had been ‘captivated’ by his performances for the Spanish side, where he had been an ‘outstanding’ player in various categories.
It was during his time in the Under-19s that he really shone, though, and AS have learned Liverpool ‘knocked on’ his door ahead of Real Madrid and Barcelona, who were also keen.
Indeed, they were the first big team in Europe to ‘establish direct contact’ with the footballer’s environment but they ‘did not step on the accelerator’ to get a deal done.
That ended up costing them when they contacted him ‘with greater conviction’ after he shone at the Under-19 European Championships with Spain, as they learned that Real Madrid and Barcelona had then made their moves ‘in a more forceful way’.
In fact, Madrid were ‘already well advanced’ in their agreement with the player and they closed a deal shortly afterwards, leaving Liverpool wondering what may have been.
Asensio is not the only current Madrid footballer that Liverpool had ‘within range’ either as AS have also learned Dani Ceballos was on their radar.
With him the Reds did not take ‘such concrete steps’ as they had with Asensio, but they did have ‘very positive reports’ on the player after his impressive performances with Real Betis in the second division.
That was two years before he ended up at Madrid, although there was no firm approach as there was with Asensio.
Nonetheless, as was the case with his teammate, the interest was there and it could have been very different for everyone involved if Liverpool had only made more concrete approaches.
