Barcelona and Madrid are keeping an eye on Hugo Sotelo

Hugo Sotelo (Vigo, 2003) he plays football the way he lives. With peripheral vision, a pronounced personality and the perception that horchata is mixed in his blood. “Sometimes it’s too quiet,” they say. That “surplus” implies on the field the risk he takes in his decisions. “The ball never burns him and that makes him different,” wrote Claudio Giráldez, coach of Celta B, whose Sotelo is one of the great sensations. Last weekend, in the play-off for promotion to the Second League against Eldense in Balaídos, Hugo left the first half of notable football cards.

His progress did not go unnoticed. With 27 games at the club – he missed a month with a muscle tear at the start of the year – and a quarter of an hour with the first team against Valladolid in Balaídos, Barcelona have taken the first steps to convey their interest. It is one of the clubs that Sotelo has followed, and which he believes fit the formula that is exploding at La Masía. He did not make any offer, but he was interested in his conditions in Vigo. Since Valdebebas, Real Madrid have also made a move to find out his situation. A solid offer, for now, too.

Chelsea followed suit

Barcelona and Madrid are not the only clubs with a continental dimension that have controlled Sotel’s steps. Last year, Chelsea took referrals from one of their scouts in Spain when looking for a midfielder for their support team. The London team eventually decided on the second alternative.

Mirandés and Lega, for transfer

Several second-tier clubs, including Mirandés and Leganés, have shown interest in a possible transfer for Hugo, a door Celta have so far not opened. UA Madroi see Sotel as one of the players with the projection to reach the elite like Gabri Veiga did.

Keys to Renewal: In Search of a Professional Contract

Hugo Sotelo signed his latest contract in May 2021, which expires in June 2025, and his clause is currently €10m if he maintains his club record, or €20 if he reaches the first team. That link gives a margin to Celta, who sent the first offer, but have not yet opened negotiations. Sotel’s continuity, which he intends to restore in Vigo, includes a proposal that includes a professional contract, a circumstance that the young man prioritizes over other issues. Sotelo made his Ligue 1 debut two years ago at the Camp Nou under Coudet, coinciding with his latest renewal, in May 2021, aged 17. Last season, as a youth, he regularly trained with the first team.

His mother rejected the Wolves when he was young

The hairdresser’s son was not amused by the swings. Hugo Sotelo was not yet three years old, and Fatima, his mother, already knew which activity she would enroll him in. The problem is, he wasn’t old enough to consider it a bottle yet. But his insistence was rewarded in Sárdoma. Hugo was running on the As Relfas field, and Fatima was relieved.

He soon realized that what his son was doing with the ball was beyond the reach of the other boys he was competing with. Celta put him on their radar very quickly. In his last months, Sárdom left him without a game. “It’s the club’s decision,” Fatima said then. Hugo was still the youngest. He joined Celta at the age of 8, and his mother’s obsession was his studies.

Sotel’s progress soon attracted the attention of foreign clubs. Wolverhampton, with a scout in the territory of Galicia, and in which Jonny Otto, Erik Bugarín and Hugo Bueno landed from Vigo in recent years, wanted to take him when Sotelo was in his first year. His mother said no. Fatima also hesitated to sign a professional contract when her son was in the third year of ESO. “I like coaching a person more than a football player,” he said at the time.

Taming Hugo’s character was one of the main tasks of the technicians who guided him in the younger categories of Celta. He had a hard time accepting authority and easily challenged the coaches.

“If they put me aside, I leave”

It was in the first year of his youth that Sotelo experienced one of the most critical moments as a sky blue. They started deploying him as a right-back, which caused a deep rejection of the game. “I’m not sideways,” he repeated over and over. “If they put me aside, it doesn’t matter to me whether I go to Areosa or Val Miñor,” Sotelo then told his closest entourage. He preferred to be a midfielder anywhere else.

At the age of 16, he finished convincing the coaches of his capabilities in the center of the field, from which he never moved. Sotelo was instrumental in the Juvenil División de Honor, which was a Champions Cup semi-finalist with Claudio Giráldez as coach.