Spanish Football: Isco proving to be a bargain buy for Malaga

Francisco Roman Alarcon Suarez - better known as Isco

Ben Lyttleton tell us about the rise of Francisco Roman Alarcon Suarez, aka Isco, and why the bargain buy from Valencia can help Malaga to a high place La Liga finish this season...

You could make a pretty decent side based on players that have left Valencia, Spain's third-best club, in recent years. Try this one for starters: Cesar Sanchez; Jordi Alba, Carlos Marchena, Raul Albiol, Asier Del Horno; Mehmet Topal; Joaquin, Juan Mata, David Silva; Aritz Aduriz, David Villa.

In most of these cases, the club made big money on the sales, and cashed in when they could; the likes of Mata and Silva both left for over €20m while Villa went to Barcelona for €40m. But it does not always work out quite so well for them. Last summer, Valencia sold a teenage winger called Francisco Roman Alarcon Suarez to Malaga for €6m, and 14 months later, he is already worth more than three times that.

He is better known by the name Isco, and last week he lived up to the hype with the first goal of this season's Champions League group stages: a brilliant jinking run past two Zenit St Petersburg defenders before a shot placed into the far corner. Late on in the game, Isco scored another fantastic goal, this time a bullet-shot from outside the area that arrowed into the top corner. Malaga won 3-0 and with AC Milan only able to draw with Anderlecht at home, top Group C and are 2.727/4 to qualify in top spot.

On Sunday night, Isco took his considerable talent to Bilbao, where his Malaga side held Athletic, widely considered to have the best collection of young Spanish talent in La Liga, to a goalless draw. The result extended Malaga's unbeaten run in the league to five games, and kept them joint-second in the table, four points behind leaders Barcelona.

The two questions Malaga fans are now asking is: can Manuel Pellegrini's side improve on last season's fourth-place finish and challenge Valencia to that third position in La Liga? And just how did Valencia let Isco go for so little?

Isco had joined Valencia when he was 15, but by the time he was 19, he was finding chances hard to come by. Then-coach Unai Emery was reluctant to pick him for the team, and though they offered him a contract extension, it was already too late and Malaga had met the €6m release clause in his contract. That was quite a fee for a teenager with only five league appearances to his name, but has proved to be a bargain.

"Isco is a different type of player: technically he is very gifted, he has a fantastic eye for a pass and in the one-on-ones as well," explained Gines Melendez, the sporting director for the Spanish federation's youth teams. "No-one knows what's going to happen when he has the ball."

Isco was on the Malaga bench for the first few months of last season, but has been a regular since October. "We were helpless," said Valencia sports director Braulio Vazquez. "He wanted to be closer to home, and when a club pays the get-out clause, there's nothing we can do."

Valencia had a poor weekend, losing 2-0 to this season's surprise high-fliers Malllorca and they are already six points adrift of Isco's Malaga team, who are 2.166/5 to finish in the top four again this season, with Valencia 1.330/100 and Atletico Madrid 1.4640/85. That looks like good value even if their debut Champions League campaign could test the depth of their squad.

With Mauricio Pellegrino still adapting to life as Valencia coach - he is more popular than Emery with his players, but at the moment results have been tougher to come by - this season is a great opportunity for another team to end Valencia's three-year cycle of third-placed finishes. Keep an eye on Sevilla (3.55/2), but if Isco continues his current form, third-place could also be in reach for Malaga, who are also 3.55/2.