Hicham Khaloua (Cartagena)

English giants fight for starlet
Cartagena gem on radar of top clubs

By Graeme Bailey
Last Updated: June 28, 2011 11:12am

Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea are all keen on Spanish starlet Hicham Khaloua, skysports.com understands.

The 16-year-old is currently with Spanish second division side Cartagena, where he is already training with the first team.

Known as Hicham, the young striker has a hugely impressive record at youth level and last season scored over 40 goals.

He is now attracting interest from around Spain with Real Madrid, Barcelona and the big-spending Malaga all keen to recruit him.

As Hicham is 16, he cannot yet sign a professional deal and that has again put the English sides on alert, who can sign him and only be due to pay minimal compensation.

And skysports.com understands that the interest from England is very strong, with United, City, Liverpool and Chelsea all looking to sign him.

Hicham, of Moroccan descent, is a Spanish citizen and is ready to play for Spain's youth setup.

All the clubs interested were understood to have been in Spain at the weekend to watch Hicham in action as he played for his regional side Murcia.

Hicham is expected to decide his future in the coming weeks, but it seems he could very well be heading to England.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12874_7008420,00.html

40 goals a season at any level is impressive.

I think our superior academy set up, compared to our 'rivals' in England, is going to tempt some of these highly sought after youngsters to us.

Guardiola's comments in his homeland, plus the successful transition of Flanagan, Robinson, Shelvey, Kelly etc. in to the first team could decide it.

Second that Crouch,should be a no brainer for the lad after Peps comments.

What Guardiola comments?

What Guardiola comments?

I'm presuming they're talking about Guardiola saying that, besides their's, our Academy was the best in the world.

40 goals a season? Sounds good, but could he do it on a rainy night at the Brittannia?

In all seriousness, I'll go pick him up if we want him.

Nobody mentioned a thing about this lad or probably even knew about him before yesterday - good work scouting team!

Nobody mentioned a thing about this lad or probably even knew about him before yesterday - good work scouting team!

Ahem ....

Nah just kidding, no idea who he was and still know very little about him.

Nobody mentioned a thing about this lad or probably even knew about him before yesterday - good work scouting team!

I think Mac_red had dinner with the lad's parents just last week in anticipation of this move....gotta be in the loop and all. 

Nobody mentioned a thing about this lad or probably even knew about him before yesterday - good work scouting team!

Considering that the coaches of our Reserve and our U-18 team are Spanish, I am not really surprised ...

All I'm saying is it reflects positively on our scouting team.  If they got the info from our coaches, I'm ok with that.  Nobody knows F**k all about him and the fact he's highly rated and we're in the mix for him, can only be a good thing.

Who? and Where?

Think we have the obvious advantage in signing young players from Spain because of our set up, but obviously our disadvantage could be financial.

If we want to be spending on young players, here's our chance.

Think we have the obvious advantage in signing young players from Spain because of our set up, but obviously our disadvantage could be financial.

If we want to be spending on young players, here's our chance.

Not only our setup mate, there's a law which states that Spanish clubs can't poach from other Spanish clubs if the player is under 17, it needs to be a transfer (agreed valuation) as opposed to a "offer him a contract and if he signs then the buying club owes selling club compensation of some sort". 

That's what we did with Suso and that's how we beat Real Madrid and Barcelona to his signature.  We didn't pay a fee for Suso per se, we were essentially ordered to pay compensation to Cadiz for offering Suso a contract which he accepted, I think it was somewhere around the £500k mark.  It gives foreign clubs a greater chance of actually landing 16 year old Spanish kids ahead of Spanish teams.  The fact we've got Segura and Borrell here will hopefully tip the balance in our favour