WHO IS MUNIR EL HADDADI ?

Who is MUNIR EL HADDADI? Three months back the only people who could have answered this were those involved with FC Barcelona & its "B Team". Today the 19 year old Football player is known all over Spain, branded a new Football promise & has been called up by Spanish Football National Team Selector & Coach Vicente Del Bosque to fill the place left vacant by "injured" Diego Costa.

But who is Munir? Munir El Haddadi Mohamed is a Moroccan descendent born 19 years ago in "El Escorial" (Madrid, Spain). The player has risen up from the junior ranks attracting the attention of Real Madrid & Atletico de Madrid, but finally decided to go to FC Barcelona & build his Soccer career in the "B Team". 

His future radically changed when new FC Barcelona Coach Luis Enrique called up Munir to do pre-season with the "A Team" & allowed the player to prove himself with some pre-season matches. Munir took his opportunity to score goals & impress Club & Football observers. The player then surprised being included in the starting 11 of FC Barcelona in their Round 1 Liga game were he scored. From here Munir has rose to "stardom" being called up to the Spanish U-21 Team & now to the Spanish National Team. 

Although we are all happy for the youngster, the rapid rise has caused some eyebrows to lift. Munir - with double nationality Spanish/Moroccan - has said that he wished to play with Morocco, but this speech has slowly changed in favour of Spain. Some Football observers suspect that Spain Selector & Coach Vicente de Bosque has called up Munir to give the player some "official" International Football minutes against Macedonia next week (Euro 2016 qualifier) to SHUT the "Moroccan Door". This way Spain secures the young promise. 

But is Munir ready? Is he the answer & solution to Spain´s goal problem? No. The reason for the Munir call up is for the apparent injury to Diego Costa, an injury not seen at all in training which raises questions. Munir put in an "average" performance with the U-21 Spanish Team against Hungary last week which was not enough to justify a call up. Lastly, there are a number of other forwards that deserve a call up & may actual solve the teams lack of goal creating opportunities, namely ADURIZ & FERNANDO LLORENTE. With the last, rumour has it that Del Bosque has a "personal" thing with Llorente. 

In any case, what also concerns some observers his the rapid rocket rise to fame of Munir. Some fear that Munir could be a "flash in the pan" & that when Luis Suarez returns to Football at the end of October, Munir could be spending more time on the bench, or at worst back to the "B Team". Others believe the Club may "hype up" Munir for a later multi-million sale-transfer operation.  In either case, Munir is in a delicate crossroads situation that could break or make his future. Many young stars before him ( e.g. Bojan) were destined for big things & were left on the rails. 

Stay tuned!

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