His signing by a regular in Europe like Real is the logical step that the career and progression of Brais Mendez Portela (Mos, Pontevedra, 1997) required. After two years of intense monitoring, the txuri urdin club launched this summer to hire him, achieved in exchange for 14 million euros, the second most powerful investment in its history, so the bet is solid and is made from conviction . From Celta to the senior team, with an ephemeral previous stint at Villarreal, the Galician has done nothing but grow and ends up in Donostia to continue doing so. Ruben Albeshis coach at Celta B now at Albacete, and Carlos Hugo BayonFootball Director of Celta’s Denomination of Origin, radiographs in MD the virtues and career of a baseball genius who is now also a pressure specialist.
Ruben Albes (Vigo, 1985) directed brais mendez in the Celta subsidiary, a fundamental stage in the growth of the new txuri urdin player. “I have a good relationship with him, I congratulated him the other day for signing him for Real”, he confesses. His first conclusion is that “the Real is right and Brais He has made a brave decision, to leave the club of his entire life”. He does it after 10 years wearing the light blue jersey: “Because of the club model and his abilities, he can further exploit that level of football that he has; his potential is tremendous,” he says.
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The best, your first control
The description of his virtues as a footballer becomes a litany for the Albacete coach: “He is a technician, he has the ability to interpret the game, he is associative, he has a goal and a last pass.” Almost nothing. And in that forest of contributions, he highlights one above all: “What distinguishes him most is his first touch, his first contact with the ball gives him a great advantage.”
And to that he has managed to incorporate aspects such as commitment without the ball: “He understands pressure movements very well and has a great ability to intercept balls,” says Albés. Last season, without going any further, Brais he was the second player in the League with the most pressures and the most fouls committed: “He is not the strongest in the duel itself, but he is in reading the passing lines. That is why he recovers so many balls ”, clarifies the coach.
albes, in addition, highlights that it has been his “will to be competitive and improve” what has led him to the national team. “He is ready to take this step of maturity, he is at a great age and I see him prepared; he is a great signing by Real”, he concludes.
exemplary track record
Carlos Hugo Bayón (León, 1973), head of Celta’s academy, for his part, highlights that, after returning from Villarreal at the age of 15, he had “a very stable process” through the lower categories. “We put him as an example of a youth player at Celta”, he underlines, for the “good process he did” in this “so difficult transition” that involves moving to professional football. “There are excellent players who don’t make the final cut, but with him it became very easy”.
They made it easy Juan Carlos Unzue, which made him debut in the first team and the personality of the player and his relatives: “The kids think they should be up there now, but he and his family were patient and he was able to complete all the years of youth in the Division of Honor”. The reserve team required him, but they convinced the player, his parents and his agents: “At Celta B he was going to have a difficult time and the best thing for his progression and his self-confidence was that he continued to be the youth’s benchmark”.
So transformation in the subsidiary
And in the subsidiary he also had a career: around 4,000 minutes: “He was a very offensive player, but with little defensive capacity.” However, from the youth and in the B they did a specific job with him: “He had the humility to put on the overalls and go from being a great player to a round player,” he says. Bayon. “Without that, with his quality for the pass and the first control and his humility to learn to defend and be better, he doesn’t play, since he looks for pressure after absolute loss.” In the Leonese’s opinion, Brais “has taken all that football that he needed to be a top-level player.”
Clothes didn’t hurt him when he had to go down to the subsidiary when he was already on horseback with the first team and he even had to deal with some whistles from Balaídos in his early days: “He seems like a very cold player, it’s what his body language shows, but really it is not. The fans criticized him for being a bit ‘bloodless’, but he also turned that on its head”. It is an episode from the past that Bayón rescues.
That shot that does not take
The person in charge of the Celtiña quarry has a recommendation for Brais: “I have told him: he should get much more out of his shot. In youth he had a spectacular shot. He has impressive leverage even from a standstill. He scored goals even from midfield. It is a precise and powerful shot”. Here is the advice.
Those who know him affirm that the Real has made a great contract: “Olabe doesn’t sign just anyone, much less paying a lot of money for him; the normal thing is that he does well ”, summarizes Bayón
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