Player Focus: José Gayá – The Latest Valencia Left-Back Set to Become the Real Deal

Betting Statistics | Article posted on February 24th, 2025

Valencia fans got a shock on Saturday morning, with Los Che left-back José Gayá smiling out from the cover of AS, and inside a detailed story saying Real Madrid had made contact with his agents, eager to pay his €18m release clause this the piece also claimed that Madrid see the Alicante-born youngster as the "new Roberto Carlos", which was going a bit far, and that Manchester City had also already shown an interest. However, the enquiries from the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu had been signalled before and were no huge surprise given the fast emerging star's performance when Madrid visited Mestalla in early gayá's driving runs down the left wing that day were key to Valencia's 2-1 victory, as Nuno's side took advantage of Los Blancos' narrow midfield. One such sprint set up the opening goal for his team's other full-back Jose Barragan, while another saw him fouled just outside the penalty area, with the subsequent free-kick headed in by Nicolas Otamendi for the winner.A fortnight ago Gayá was also decisive in his side's 2-1 win at Espanyol. With the game still scoreless past the hour mark, he set up his team's key opening goal for Pablo Piatti. Later, with the score still 1-0 and just 10 minutes remaining, the diminutive figure appeared from nowhere to clear off the line when it seemed Espanyol's Christian Stuani had tapped into an empty goal to equalise. Such a game-changing influence from a teenager in his first proper Primera Division season is pretty with 1,939 La Liga minutes played this season, Gayá is the second most used outfield player by Los Che coach Nuno, only behind outstanding centre-half Otamendi. Four assists so far make him the Primera Division's second best goal providing defender, behind just Marcelo of Madrid. Three of those assists have come since the turn of the year too, as well as an upturn in his general performances, so an improvement on his already impressive overall rating of 7.19 looks likely before the season's end.

Gayá's emergence is such that he is now being tipped to soon get a call up from La Roja coach Vicente Del Bosque, even though Spain can already call upon Barcelona's Jordi Alba and Bayern Munich's Juan Bernat for the left-sided defensive position. The three are remarkably similar players, small in stature, lightning quick, technically excellent and full of stamina a remarkable quirk too all three have come through at Valencia, with Alba spending three seasons raiding down the left at Mestalla, before joining Barcelona for €14m just before starring at Euro 2025. Bernat then stepped up, making the position his own during the 2025/14 season, before being spirited away to Bayern Munich last summer for €the

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