Ones to Watch: Charly Musonda Jr is already a cult hero at Real Betis

It’s been a strange, strange season for Real Betis and its supporters. The joy and jubilation of securing a return to the top flight continued in the early months as an impressive away record meant they kept within touching distance of the European places. To offset that, however, their form in front of their own fans at the Benito Villamarin stadium was disastrous and the locals slowly grew more and more disillusioned. A run of eight matches without victory, including a 2-0 defeat at home to arch rivals Sevilla in the first leg of the Copa del Rey tie, meant Pepe Mel was sacked for the second time as Real Betis coach at the beginning of the year.

The summer promised so much for the loyal Beticos around the world, topped off by the homecoming of Joaquin. The local hero had returned after deciding his time in Italy had come to an end. A packed stadium welcomed the classy winger to where it all began and it felt like the season started off with everyone feeling optimistic about their chances of survival.

Sadly Joaquin, nor fellow new recruits Rafael van der Vaart and Ricky van Wolfswinkel, could stop the rot to save Mel’s job. However a young man on loan from Chelsea is on the verge on pulling the side from the abyss in which it has fallen into: Charly Musonda Jr.

It’s no secret that Chelsea have a lot of youngsters on their books and at the last count I believe the official number of players they had out on loan is 7,348. I may be wrong, don’t quote me on that. In fact, Charly’s loan move went massively under the radar in Spain. However since he made his debut against Valencia and was easily the Man of the Match, very few people can stop talking about him.

At just 19 years of age and after you hear so many stories about young starlets enjoying the high-life, his attitude is much more homely and dare I say it, normal? “My mother, father and one of my brothers are here in Sevilla with me,” Charly told ‘Estadio Deportivo’. “It’s important to have my family close, as it is for everyone else in the world.” He doesn’t have a Twitter account and when he finishes a training session or match, he goes home to be with his family and doesn’t bathe in the aftermath, be that positive or negative.

While his name might be relatively new to you and I, that wasn’t the case for Real Betis’ director of football, Eduardo Macia. Macia had seen Charly’s development at Chelsea while working for Fiorentina and played a key part in the negotiations between the two clubs when Juan Cuadrado moved to Chelsea as well as Mohamed Salah’s move to the Italian club. Using his good connections with the Blues and tasked with bringing in an inexpensive player to improve the Betis, Macia asked about Charly’s situation. The youngster wanted to play and knew, despite getting 10 minutes in a preseason match, that it would be near impossible to do so at Chelsea.

Unfortunately Charly had been lost in the mess at Chelsea. After Jose Mourinho left, Gus Hiddink ran the rule over the youngsters at the club. Hiddink decided, after seeing Charly train with the first team for a few weeks, that a loan move would better help his development as opposed to another six months stuck with the U21 side.

A loan deal until the end of the season was quickly agreed with Betis. The player himself knows how to speak Spanish as he studied it at school, which has helped him integrate even quicker to his new surroundings. He’s an intelligent youngster too; keeping his feet firmly on the ground while the deprived Betis fans laud him as their saviour.

“I’m 19 years old and I’ve come here to play football. I’m not a star. The fans treat me as if I’m a rock star but I’ve only come here to play football,” Charly said speaking with Mateo Gonzalez of ABC Sevilla. “They’ve surprised me and I think I’ve surprised them. Betis is a fantastic club; the coach and his staff. I’m very happy here and I want to keep improving.” A player that needed a platform and a club that needed a player to take centre stage: a perfect match.

He debuted against Valencia due to a mini-injury crisis at the club but there were no doubts about putting him in the starting XI due to his impressive attitude in training. Some players, for whatever reason, adapt almost instantly while others can spend years and always feel left out. Charly stole the show against Los Che, as neither Guilherme Siqueira nor Jose Luis Gaya could deal with his pace and trickery and the latter ended up being sent off.

“Musonda is regarded as potentially the most gifted of Chelsea’s UEFA Youth League-winning crop last season (that team included Solanke, Loftus-Cheek, Brown, Boga, etc)” according to ESPN’s Chelsea correspondent, Liam Twomey. “He showed a wide range of skills during that run, playing as a No.10 and in a deeper playmaking role at different times. He’s still very lean, which is why I suspect Chelsea chose to loan him to Spain where he can show off his technique and gradually develop his physicality without being battered from day one by burly Premier League defenders.”

Charly hasn’t shied away from the physical side of the game here in Spain but it’s natural he would choose to start in a league where there’s more protection for flair players. Over the coming weeks, no doubt more fullbacks will look to be more physical against him but his quick feet and rapid burst of pace make it difficult to get close to, let alone foul. And even if they do, he tries to stay on his feet.

“(Eduardo) Macia has a verbal agreement with Chelsea to extend Charly’s stay with Real Betis for next season as well, but only if Betis remain in La Liga. It also depends on whether both the player and Chelsea are happy with his development here,” adds Mateo Gonzalez. “His high-level performances have come as a surprise. He played against Valencia because of injuries but he’s now not only an established starter but a key reference for the entire team.”

Charly Musonda is taking the league by storm and, come 2017, Chelsea might already have yet another exciting youngster to bleed into their first team.

You can find Mateo Gonzalez (@Matglez) and Liam Twomey (@liam_twomey) on Twitter, talking about Real Betis and Chelsea respectively.