After taking over Iñaki Bea’s position, coach Marcelo Neveleff made three trips to England to get the go-ahead from former Betis Junior Firpo. Now, he has a scheduled trip to the Andalusian capital to meet with Sevilla FC striker Mariano Diaz. Seville has long been a popular destination for Dominican Republic residents, as the major clubs there have featured athletes from this nation. Junior Firpo, a left-back who plays for Leeds United in England, received his training at Real Betis. The green and white organization’s basketball team featured Jean Montero, Tyson Pérez, and Eulis Báez from ACB last year; the Dominican consul in
city of Khaterine Peña, Seville. All of them have already left the city for different reasons. Mariano Díaz arrived there last summer to take over his signing for Sevilla FC, and in recent days, he has become the talk of his home country (he was born in Barcelona) because ‘Fedofútbol’ representatives are heading there soon to try to persuade him and finalize his signing.
The forward is facing significant challenges and a significant disadvantage in his quest to regain the glory he lost during five long years of exclusion from Real Madrid, a team he played for as a youth player and rejoined after emerging as one of the most sought-after number 9s in European football following his breakout performance in an incredibly offensive Olympique Lyonnais in which five players scored nearly 80 goals: Mariano (20), Memphis Depay (22), Nabil Fekir (21), Bertrand Traoré (17), and Houssem Aouar (7). The Spanish-Dominican striker’s phone kept ringing that summer (2018). He was sought after by numerous teams, and he even created room in the Spanish team’s pools, which
had just departed at that point. Luis Enrique and Julen Lopetegui were on their way. At the time, he declared, “My dream is to play in the World Cup with Spain.”
