Neymar, Alexis Sanchez, Ivan Rakitic… we look at the stars spotted by Arsenal’s new super-scout Raul Sanllehi
The Spaniard will join the Gunners in February as the head of football relations after spending 14 years with Barcelona
ARSENAL'S massive overhaul of their player recruitment has continued after they appointed Raul Sanllehi as the head of football relations.
He’s a former Barcelona director of football, who worked with the Catalan giants for 14 years.
Sanllehi follows former Borussia Dortmund man Sven Mislintat to the Gunners, who has replaced Steve Rowley as chief scout.
With Sanllehi given credit for a number of arrivals at Barcelona, our friends at Football Whispers have looked at some of the biggest names he attracted to the Nou Camp.
Luis Suarez
It was no secret that Luis Suarez was a long-term Barcelona transfer target, but it looked like Liverpool were trying to hold strong and not sell their star man, who they’d kept out of the clutches of Arsenal the previous summer.
But Barca were desperate to seal the deal and sent the man they believed was their top negotiator, Sanllehi to Liverpool.
It worked too, with the Spaniard leading negotiations with Ian Ayre and managing to bring the Uruguayan to Spain for £75million, less than Liverpool had wanted for the forward.
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And since then, he’s gone on to great success with Barcelona, with 126 goals in 164 games for the Catalan club.
The 30-year-old has also won two La Ligas, three Copa del Reys, a Champions League and a Club World Cup since his arrival in Spain, and formed part of the most-feared front three in world football alongside Neymar and Lionel Messi.
Ivan Rakitic
Another player Sanllehi is credited for bringing to Barcelona is Ivan Rakitic, who joined from Sevilla in the same summer as Suarez.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that the man credited for bringing in the main players that summer was Sanllehi, and that those players led to Luis Enrique lifting the treble in his first season as Barcelona manager.
The Croatian has evolved his game to become one of the best midfielders around at Barcelona since his arrival from their La Liga rivals.
He’s made 180 appearances for them in all competitions, scoring 27 goals.
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Marc-Andre ter Stegen
With Victor Valdes on his way out of the Nou Camp, everyone knew Barcelona wanted a goalkeeper.
That would have surely meant them paying over the odds, but they managed to get Marc-Andre ter Stegen for just £9.7million back in 2014 – a summer where Sanllehi particularly excelled.
And that looks a bargain now, with the German goalkeeper being talked about as potentially displacing Manuel Neuer as his country’s No.1.
That’s something team-mate Lucas Digne thinks he’s more than capable of.
“For me, Ter Stegen is the best goalkeeper in the world right now,” Digne told reporters last week after Barcelona’s draw with Juventus.
“He is playing at an extremely high level.”
Not bad for someone who was signed for just £9.7million.
Neymar
At 21, Neymar had the world of his feet and was linked to the biggest clubs in Europe and was a Real Madrid transfer target.
Yet, he chose Barcelona when he left Santos because of Sanllehi’s intervention.
Along with Andre Cury, Barca’s representative in South America, he played a huge role in persuading Neymar and his father to join the club in 2013 and snub their La Liga rivals.
He also played a big part in the Brazilian’s subsequent contract renewal and also kept him from Paris Saint-Germain’s clutches in 2016 by flying to Brazil to speak to the superstar’s family to get him to back down from a decision to move to France.
Sanllehi was unable to do the same last summer, but even during the potential move, it was he who was key to any chance Barcelona had of keeping hold of Neymar, with the player and his father saying he was the only director they were willing to deal with – he was even flown in to the Catalan side’s tour of the United States to try and convince the Brazilian not to leave.
Alexis Sanchez
Another player who arrived in Barcelona because of Sanllehi was Alexis Sanchez in 2011.
The Chilean spent three years at the club before moving to Arsenal in 2014.
The 28-year-old looks set to leave the Gunners this summer, with his contract drawing to a close.
Yet, perhaps Arsenal may hope that the good relationship between Manchester City transfer target Sanchez and Sanllehi could see him stay at the Emirates, especially given the former Barca man is renowned for his negotiation skills.
