“He’s a blessing for us,” says Jagoba Arrasate, the manager of Osasuna as he describes Abdessamad Ezzalzouli. Or, rather, as he praises ‘Abde’ as the winger is known to friends, fans and to an increasingly wide constituency of professional admirers.
In recent weeks, the blessings have been plentiful. First, there is Abde’s presence in the biggest occasion Osasuna, the strictly middleweight Spanish club from Pamplona, have known for almost a generation – Saturday’s Copa del Rey final, against the very heavyweight Real Madrid.
From Arrasate’s point of view, far better it is Madrid than Barcelona, who midway through their semi-final were 1-0 up against Madrid and apparently heading to the Seville showpiece. An extraordinary turnaround – a 4-0 Madrid win in the second leg at Camp Nou – was greeted with special glee at Osasuna.
Abde is on loan from Barcelona, and there is a clause in his deal that means the borrowing club must pay €250,000 to Barca if Abde plays for Osasuna against them. The semi-final outcome meant Arrasate had been spared the trouble of having to plea with his board to carry that cost.
He is actually twice blessed in having Abde available. When the 21-year-old was shown the first straight red card of his senior career, two minutes after coming on to the pitch against Cadiz 10 days ago, a lengthy suspension was feared.
Abde, a player who endures far more fouls than he commits, had stretched out a foot at an opponent off the ball. The blessing was that he was given only a one-match ban.
So, after all the uncertainties, he is eligible. And no Osasuna player has a greater say in propelling the club to their first cup final for 18 years.
Abde scored the extra-time quarter-final goal that beat Sevilla, via his
Read more on thenationalnews.com
thenationalnews.com
