There is no team in Europe that Rarsh Ilya played more minutes against this season than his new team, Maccabi Tel Aviv.
65 minutes in Bloomfield in the Europa League qualifiers, 77 minutes in the second leg at Allianz Rivera - a total of 142 minutes.
This figure alone can explain how the 19-year-old Romanian talent has turned out for Aitor Karanka's team.
The two games against the Yellows were in August, shortly after Ileja arrived in France from Rapid Bucharest as a big promise for five million euros.
A season earlier, he scored six goals in the Romanian league and the French team bet on him as someone who might be a significant screw in building the team.
He came to those meetings against Maccabi Tel Aviv as a huge potential, but to Maccabi Tel Aviv he now comes as a huge unrealized potential.
In the French league he recorded only 148 minutes, in Europe he added 77, scored no goals and left a general impression that he is not yet ready.
Ilya Rarash against Maccabi Tel Aviv. Will he be able to score? Photo: IPA
Still, it was not for nothing that Nice bought him for such an amount last summer.
Ilya, 1.83 meters and well built, is the type of player who is in high demand in Europe.
Right-footed who usually plays on the left side of the attack and creates danger from there.
Sometimes cuts to the center, sometimes pulls on the line, very unpredictable and versatile.
The one who brought him to Nice was Lucien Fabre, the Swiss coach who had already been fired from his position, and he explained what Illya's strengths were;
"He has the abilities of a striker 9 who is able to play on the left side in a 4:4:2 formation and he can also fit in as number 8 in a 4:3:3 formation. I like to see how young players develop and I believe he can develop a lot."
In the agency together with Romulo Lukaku
Fabre's prophecy has not come true, yet, but many believe that Ilya's future is still ahead of him.
Romanian commentators attribute the fact that Nice did not acclimate to the precarious state of the team, which spent a significant part of the season at the bottom and was kicked out of the French Cup.
Despite the failure in the French league, the 19-year-old midfielder remains highly valued in his homeland and especially for the fans of Rapid Bucharest, where he came from.
A few months ago, he returned to watch his former team's game, and when he was caught on television, he received huge applause.
On the same day, he met with the president of the Romanian club, Daniel Nicolai, who tried to lift Romo up in light of the difficult times in France.
At the same time, he was invited to play for the youth team of Romania, and he also received support from coach Emil Shandoi.
Lukaku.
Shares an agency with the Romanian talent, photo: Reuters
Towards January it was clear to everyone that Ilya would not stay in Nice.
Reports in Romania hinted that he might return to his homeland and his team Rapid, which is coached by Adrian Motto, but Ileja is determined to preserve the dream of football in the big leagues of Europe.
Only recently he was signed by the Italian super agent Federico Pastorello who represents, among others, Romulo Lukaku, Demarai Gray and Stephane de Frey, and the goal of the two - in collaboration with Nice - is to find a destination that will allow Romney playing minutes.
Rarsh Ilya.
Barak Itzhaki's bet?, Photo: Alan Shiver
The English Championship was an option, so were other teams in France, but in the end the choice was Maccabi Tel Aviv who know the player and who knows her.
The Yellows get a great talent who is marked as one of Romania's future stars, but also a player who has not played an official game since October 6, 2022.
were we wrong
We will fix it!
If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us
