Reyes exit breaks Seville hearts

As José Antonio Reyes left Sevilla’s Sanchez Pizjuan stadium bound for London on Tuesday, hundreds of fans gathered to chant his name and jeer José Maria del Nido, the president who sold him.

Even the huge transfer fee, which could rise as high as £20-million, was no consolation. When the car carrying Reyes departed they saw the soul of their club disappear into the evening sun. Sevilla had just sold their finest player, a symbol at 20 years of age.

Few footballers have been so intimately linked with a club. Born in Utrera, Sevilla province, and with the accent to prove it, Reyes is a member of Sevilla’s ‘Biris” supporters club; he has a Sevilla bedspread and Sevilla curtains. No wonder he claimed that his departure was ‘bittersweet”.

‘I am,” he said, ‘the happiest man in the world, but also the saddest. I am leaving the best club in Spain to join the best club in England. I love Sevilla with all my heart and I hope the fans don’t forget me.”

The send-off said it all: fat chance. For Reyes, who said he would love to return one day, is exactly what Sevillistas want their footballers to be. If the Andalucian capital is the home of the most enduring Spanish clichés — of flamenco, bullfighting and passion, of a theatrical, flamboyant love of life — its footballers are expected to be made in the same image. They are exuberant, flashy, daring, displaying musho arte, olé-ing past defenders.

In his gleaming white boots, Reyes fits the bill. Overflowing with pace and flair, he is ever eager to take people on, an artful andaluz. One local commentator claimed: ‘Not every singer is an artist. Nor every painter or poet. It’s possible to sing or paint or rhyme and nothing more. Footballers all play football, but very few have enchantment, magic, art. Reyes is one of the chosen ones — a pure

expression of the Sevilla School.”

Spain’s best-selling newspaper, the sports daily Marca, agreed. It recently described Reyes as ‘quite simply a superstar, spectacular. Dribbling, magic, vision and goals wrapped in one.”

‘He thinks nothing of taking on four or five rivals,” said the Sevilla manager Joaquin Caparros, which is why Reyes is the most fouled player in Spain, the man who provokes the most cards. It is the only way to stop him.

Reyes admitted that ‘negotiations have been going on, yes-no, yes-no, for seven months”, but Arsène Wenger’s interest has been an open secret for far longer. Reyes joined Sevilla aged nine and by the time he made his debut at 16 the offers were already rolling in. His speed, fluidity and daring had alerted Wenger long before he first really caught the national, and international, eye in November 2001 — thanks to his teammate Paco Gallardo.

Gallardo celebrated a fabulous Reyes goal — dashing in from the left, past three men before beating the keeper — by nibbling at his genitals.

As the pictures went round the world, Reyes responded: ‘I felt a little nip, but didn’t realise what Paco was doing.”

It was the first time the country fully scrutinised Reyes — but there would be plenty of other opportunities as he continued to shine, adding consistency to his conjuring.

A member of the Spain squad that won the under-19 European Championship in 2002, Reyes made his full debut in August 2003. Now he is a regular, scoring twice against Armenia on his third appearance. If Wenger regrets anything it is probably that he did not pounce sooner.

Reyes admitted: ‘To be honest, I know nothing about English football.”

Maybe, but Wenger has no fears.

‘Our game is based on movement, technique and pace, and Reyes has all of that,” he said. ‘He is already an international and can play everywhere — up front, on the left flank or even on the right.”

Reyes should slot perfectly into Arsenal’s slick, fluid midfield or forward line. He started as a left-winger but, like Thierry Henry, is as effective through the middle. He is not, however, an out-and-out goalscorer but a supplier, a creator of chances. The man who drives the opposition mad, who opens defences.

Just ask Real Madrid: Reyes tortured their rearguard as Sevilla thrashed them 4-1 this season. ‘The Sevillista is the devil himself” read one report.

Should Reyes repeat the trick in the Champions League, Arsenal fans will judge their most costly signing a bargain. Sevilla’s tearful fans already think it is daylight robbery. —