Valladolid's Salisu sparks battle between Real Madrid, Atlético and Man United
The promising 20-year-old centre-back has been a stand-out peformer at Valladolid this season, during which time he has garnered the attention of several top clubs.
Valladolid defender Mohammed Salisu has seen his career skyrocket over the past two years. On the back of his impressive performances this season, the towering Ghanaian centre-back, measuring 1.87m, has sparked a potential battle for his signature between the likes of Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid and Manchester United.
Such has been his remarkable rise that the 20-year-old’s value has gone from 250,000 euros to 10 million euros on Transfermarkt.com over the past eight months, making him now the most valuable player at Valladolid.
In September 2017, he arrived at Valladolid’s youth academy and three months later had ascended to Valladolid Promesas in Segunda División B, making 13 appearances for the reserve team that season. In 2018-19 he played twice as many games for the ‘B’ team (26 appearances), where he demonstrated his outstanding power and quality.
This season the plan was for Salisu to train with the first team and play with the reserves. But the unavailability of Javi Sánchez and Federico Barba forced coach Sergio González to start the young Ghanaian defender in the first game of the season. And he played so well that he quickly became an undisputed starter for Gonzáelez.
Salisu’s impressive first season at Valladolid
Salisu has started every league game this season except against Barcelona at Camp Nou, where he started on the bench but came on after 32 minutes for the injured Nacho.
His numbers have made him one of the stand-out players at the Estadio José Zorrilla this season. In his 24 games for Los Pucelanos (23 in the league, one in the Copa), he has scored one goal against Eibar, achieved an 80% pass success rate, made 101 ball recoveries, won 101 duels, and registered 119 clearances.
Real Madrid join race to sign Salisu
Real Madrid has emerged as the latest club to have shown interest in Salisu. Though, reports are that Los Blancos had previously rejected the chance to sign him on two occasions, having failed to recognize his potential. That was, of course, before his stunning LaLiga debut against Betis on the opening day of the season.
After that game, clubs such as Atlético Madrid, Manchester United, Newcastle and Valencia have come circling, all united in their desire to acquire the promising young centre back, whose release clause is currently set at 12 million euros.