The meteoric explosion of Ferran Jutglà in Bruges

Previous Direct

Brugge fans often go to the Jan Breydel stadium with the feeling that history classifies their club among the classics of European football.

The only Belgian club to have played in a European Cup final, lost to Liverpool in 1978 (1-0), participation in the Champions League evokes among its oldest fans the days of Lambert, Courant, Leekens, Gerets, Ceulemans, Vanderheyen and the revolutionary Austrian coach Ernst Happel, the first to win the European Cup with two different clubs, Feyenoord (1970) and Hamburg (1983).

In the Weine hotel in Bruges there is still a room named after him and in the cozy bar of the establishment, on game days, under the photos of Happel that hang on the walls,

Now, the agitator of those great memories of Bruges is Ferran Jutglá (Sant Julià de Vilatorta, 23 years old), signed this summer from Barcelona for five million euros plus 10 percent of a future transfer.

His seven goals and four assists so far this season have made him the club's flagship alongside attacking midfielder Hans Vaneken.

Short-necked, with slanted and sunken eyes, and broad and robust shoulders, his physiognomy gives off the air of a boxer sitting at the lectern in the press room of the Bruges Coliseum.

“Rapid adaptation depends on many factors.

I studied English before coming because the language was fundamental, I prepared myself physically and mentally because I came here alone.

I thought about giving my best and it turned out well”,

he explains as he intertwines his fingers and a tic emerges that causes him to blink incessantly.

In Bruges, Jutglà feels what he proclaimed convinced since he was a kid and was singled out as the best.

Whether he played for the town team, in the Espanyol or Valencia academy, Ferranet, as those closest to him know him, said without fuss: "I'm going to be a First Division player."

His game with Atlético has reminded him of a cup duel with Sant Andreu in 2018 in which he felt high-level football for the first time.

“When I faced them I thought, wow, this is elite!

I hope to play better than on that occasion”.

Ferranet, as his closest friends know him, stated without qualms: “I'm going to be a First Division player”.

His game with Atlético has reminded him of a cup duel with Sant Andreu in 2018 in which he felt high-level football for the first time.

“When I faced them I thought, wow, this is elite!

I hope to play better than on that occasion”.

Ferranet, as his closest friends know him, stated without qualms: “I'm going to be a First Division player”.

His game with Atlético has reminded him of a cup duel with Sant Andreu in 2018 in which he felt high-level football for the first time.

“When I faced them I thought, wow, this is elite!

I hope to play better than on that occasion”.

Jutglà now covers the gap opened up among the fiery Flemish fans by Charles De Ketalaere's recent march to Milan.

This is the latest example of the plundering of premature talent caused by the Bosman sentence, which has sent a handful of historic clubs such as Bruges to the second and third car of European football.

Far from being able to compete in the current inflationary market, these classics that have come down are maintained by the product of their quarries and that bets like Jutglá's explode as soon as possible.

“Of course one expects a player like that to adapt quickly.

He has shown an incredible mentality from the beginning.

He wants to improve every day.

He is almost always the first to the club and also does his job off the field and asks himself questions about the game.

Formed in the Espanyol youth academy, Barça captured Jutglá in the summer of 2021 and Xavi made him debut last season when injuries forced him to pull from La Masía.

He scored a goal in the League, another in the Cup and left flashes of mobile and instinctive striker, but the arrival of Ferran Torres and Aubameyang relegated him.

In the summer, the barrage of star signings limited his stay at the Barça club to one season.

“When I had to come in to play for Barcelona, ​​it was a time of great urgency in everything and people didn't expect much from those of us who came up from below.

Xavi and his coaching staff gave me confidence”, he recalls.

To hire him and convince him, Bruges played with his history and his participation in the Champions League.

“I saw many of his games before signing him and the club worked very well to convince him.

He scored goals from the beginning and that has given him confidence, he is a great scorer and in his locker room he is highly respected, ”says his coach.

At 1.75m, he can occupy all three attacking positions and has broken through as a centre-forward.

“I told you a long time ago: you smell the goal when an opportunity is about to fall from the sky.

Then he knows how to position himself in such a way that he is always in the right place”, Danish midfielder Casper Nielsen praised him recently.

The Belgian press even compares him to Romelu Lukaku and asks him to explain, being different, what virtue can make them similar.

"I look at his movements, I try to train how he places his body to protect the ball and how powerful he is to attack the spaces", he concludes.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on