From turning down the Netherlands and representing Spain with Rodri, to being tipped for stardom by Cristiano Ronaldo, three-time UEFA Champions League winner Marco Asensio has had an eye-catching career so far. Spanish football expert Graham Hunter fully expects that to continue with his loan club Aston Villa, as he explains here.
If Marco Asensio is setting pulses racing at Aston Villa, and he really should be, then it’s far from the first time in the Spaniard’s glittering career that he’s had this effect.
When Asensio was an emerging talent at Mallorca, Rafa Nadal, one of the greatest tennis players in history and a fanatical Real Madrid fan, got in urgent contact with Real's president, Florentino Perez. Nadal persuaded him to step in and sign the 18-year-old before Barcelona completed the deal which they were negotiating with the Balearic club.
Los Blancos signed Asensio in the summer of 2015 and when they decided to loan him out for a season’s experience, there were 27 clubs elbowing one another out of the way to obtain his services before Espanyol actually did.
The others included West Ham United, Valencia, Manchester City and Fiorentina, all of whom Real had pipped to his signing.
Because his late, much-missed mother was Dutch, the Netherlands national team management pleaded with Asensio to play his international football in an orange shirt - something which was backed up by a personal phone call from Ruud van Nistelrooy.
And when Cristiano Ronaldo won UEFA’s Player of the Season in 2017 he was asked, on stage in Monte Carlo, who were the players he could envisage being successors to the dynasty of rivalry he and Lionel Messi had created?
Although CR7 named Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Eden Hazard, he also suggested Asensio – gigantic praise given whose opinion it was.
But then Asensio is a footballer who oozes technical ability, football vision, the ability to thrill, and a talent for scoring glorious long-distance goals.
Watch: Pick of Asensio's best Real Madrid goals
Those in the know have always eyed him up with admiration and enthusiasm. His ability makes hearts flutter.
Which is probably why, having grown up idolising Zinedine Zidane, Asensio ended up starring for Zizou's Real Madrid and living out his dream, daily, at the club's Valdebebas training ground trying to outdo his hero when the French coach would join in the passing drills.
Dreams sometimes do come true… but usually only for those blessed with special gifts plus both the determination and application to use them well.
And in case there’s any question, at all, about the quality of footballer that has been brought to Villa Park, just weigh up the fact that Asensio is in the all-time top 20 players with the most trophies for Real Madrid!
It's a list packed with the most venerated talents of the last 70 years (Luka Modric, Dani Carvajal, Karim Benzema, Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos and Paco Gento) but the kid from Mallorca, the likeable, affable and easy-going islander, is tied on 17 trophies with the man who was for a long time considered the greatest-ever footballer: Alfredo Di Stefano!
All of which helps explain why Villa were so determined to bring Asensio's Spanish talents to their Premier League and UEFA Champions League challenges.
But just before the recent transfer market closed, there was some unusually candid revelations from Villa's sporting director, Monchi, when he talked to Spanish radio station, Cadena Ser.
Far from claiming credit for the tantalising loan move he negotiated with Paris Saint-Germain for Asensio’s loan, the transfer-market guru revealed that the player had long been on the club's radar.
Monchi explained: "A month before I arrived, a couple of summers ago, the club tried very hard to sign Marco when he was leaving Real Madrid but, eventually, he chose to go to Paris instead. However, he’s precisely the type of footballer who attracts Unai Emery’s attention and enthusiasm."
He then added the valid point that while PSG’s ability to sign the most exciting young talents in the world had led to Asensio enjoying less playing time, Villa’s charismatic and ultra-successful coach was perfectly placed to bring the best out of his fellow Spaniard who turns 30 this month.
Monchi continued: "Unai has a long history of recuperating the very best from talented footballers. I’ve always believed that if a player has talent, it’s important for the club to give him the right habitat.
"Footballers are human beings and if you give them the right support and atmosphere then you get the best out of their talent – our coach is very good at that."
During Spain’s FIFA World Cup campaign in 2021, I interviewed Asensio and asked him about his preferred position. His explanation was: "I think I can make the most difference to games either playing on the right-hand side or down the middle.
"I’ve performed well when I’m used on the left. But people tend to ask for players like me to score or create goals, and I think that on the right or down the middle I’m more effective and I can be on the ball more often."
Back when he was scoring a goal in the 2017 Champions League final, as Madrid defeated Juventus, Asensio explained a little bit about the relationship he built with his all-time idol.
He said: "Zidane placed lots of faith in me and we had a very good understanding – I knew exactly what he would be demanding of us when he became coach and I worked hard to be ready for my opportunities.
From when I was a kid in Mallorca, I studied Zizou and copied him. To end up working for him was incredible - in training he’d join in and show us all up!"
That night of glory in the Champions League wasn't Asensio's first experience of conquering Europe. He was playing in front of a midfield pairing of Rodri (Manchester City) and Mikel Merino (Arsenal), and playing for current Spain coach Luis de la Fuente, when Spain won the UEFA European Under-19 Championship in 2015. Asensio was named as Player of the Tournament.
For Spain’s benefit, it’s just as well that Asensio turned down Danny Blind when he was Netherlands coach in 2015 and the midfielder had yet to fully commit himself internationally.
Asensio told Spanish radio: "[Blind's interest] was followed up by that phone call from Van Nistelrooy and although I thought about it, I decided that I wanted to play for Spain.
"My first game for Spain was a friendly against Serbia, meaning that I wasn’t yet disqualified [from playing for another country] so Van Nistelrooy phoned me again and said that Holland very strongly wanted to recruit me. But I knew which international shirt I wanted to wear and I’m very content that I chose Spain."
Asensio still has this season and next under contract to PSG where manager Luis Enrique Martinez has recruited a plethora of exceptional young and extremely rapid wide-players, thus limiting Asensio’s playing time.
Hence the opportunity for Emery to get hold of this talent that he so coveted. A talent which many good judges over the last few seasons have both sought after and profited from in terms of trophies, and enjoyment.
Honestly, it’s likely to be exactly the same story at Villa Park.
Graham Hunter (@BumperGraham) is a Spanish football writer, producer and broadcaster.
