Antonio Sanabria Joining Real Betis Over Tottenham

Antonio Sanabria was linked to Tottenham, but it appears a move never seemed close as the 20-year-old Paraguayan always had his heart set on remaining in Spain.

Yesterday, Sport reported that Roma striker, Antonio Sanabria, is set to remain in Spain and join Real Betis after spending last season on loan with Sporting Gijón.

Last month, Luis Enrique and Barcelona were interested in resigning the Paraguayan international two years after he left La Masia, according to the Spanish publication (via IBTimes). Enrique was seeking a versatile forward to serve as a backup to Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar, before news starting linking Tottenham to the 20-year-old.

When Spurs were suddenly in talks to sign the Paraguayan striker who scored 11 goals in 29 La Liga appearances, everything fit into place.

Sanabria is 20, his transfer fee was apparently reported at £11.5 million, which meets Daniel Levy and Mauricio Pochettino’s price range.

He would be the second striker Tottenham would hope to sign, to give Harry Kane adequate backups as soon as Vincent Janssen is signed — which has stalled because AZ Alkmaar doesn’t want to sell the Dutch international.

To read Antonio Sanabria’s agent’s comments about Spurs, gave the north London club some hope that their second (or third) summer signing would soon be complete. Even if it all seemed like a long shot to begin with.

GIJON, SPAIN – MARCH 19: Arnaldo Sanabria (R) of Real Sporting de Gijon celebrates after scoring goal during the La Liga match between Real Sporting de Gijon and Club Atletico de Madrid at Estadio El Molinon on March 19, 2016 in Gijon, Spain. (Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images) /

Speaking to TuttoMercatoWeb on June 23rd, Raúl Verdú had this to say:

"“The rumours about Tottenham?”“I speak in general, there was some contact, but we will have to go over this with Roma.”“Right now the boy is at the Giallorossi. I will talk to [Roma sporting director] Walter Sabatini to decide how to move, at present there is nothing concrete about the future of Sanabria.”“We will see if there is news next week.”"

As we can see, something did in fact happen within the next two weeks after that interview took place. Antonio Sanabria has made up his mind on where to play and it doesn’t involve the 20-year-old moving to north London and joining Tottenham.

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Based on Sport’s article up top (via IBTimes), Real Betis’ new manager, Gustavo Poyet, made several phone calls to Sanabria and helped convince him to join the Seville-based side.

Furthermore, the Paraguayan striker has already agreed on personal terms, so a deal should be nearing completion within the next couple of days.

His desire to not move to England or return to Italy, is partially due to a successful loan spell at Sporting Gijón. Another reason could be because of a language barrier, which isn’t exactly surprising.

Although Antonio Sanabria is Paraguayan, he did spend his entire youth days in Barcelona’s famed La Masia youth academy since he was 13-years-old. Speaking Spanish for him will be easier than learning English or Italian.

One example would be Érik Lamela’s transition from Argentina to Italy to England. That involved a language barrier which he had to overcome. Especially, when the 24-year-old winger made the move from Roma to Tottenham three years ago.

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With Antonio Sanabria now looking likely to join Real Betis, this makes signing Vincent Janssen even more important.

Betis of course, still has to negotiate with Roma to finalize a deal but the fact that Sanabria has decided to remain in Spain because of his familiarity with the country, meant a move to Tottenham never seemed possible despite previous reports stating otherwise.