Football Espana are today linking Chelsea with a move for Rafa Marin, the Real Madrid talent whose performances in the Castilla youth team have been attracting attention from all over as he struggles to get first team minutes.
Born in Seville, the imposing central defender moved to play in Madrid’s youth system at a young age and has worked his way up to their junior team. He’s also a regular for Spain’s U19 teams, and looks a nicely balanced defender with lots of physicality and class on the ball.
With Thiago Silva staying another year; Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Kalidou Koulibaly and Trevoh Chalobah on the books in the first team; plus Levi Colwill returning from loan, it’s hard to see where Marin fits in – and that’s not even including our own academy talents starting to break through.
But after what we’ve seen in the last 12 months, we wouldn’t rule anything out.