Celta Vigo capitulated at the end of the season in La Liga , with five losses from their last seven games. It was a dismal campaign for Los Celestes, finishing just three points above the relegation zone and suffering a managerial casualty at the start of November. However, one bright sparks discovered by latest manager Carlos Carvalhal was 21 year old playmaker Gabriel Veiga, who made 15 goal contributions last season in La Liga.
The Spaniard joined Celta Vigo's academy at the age of 11, but his presence was inconspicuous through-out his development, where he mainly went under the radar. Nevertheless, he quickly progressed through the ranks and made his senior debut for the reserve team at the age of 17, on the 25 August 2019. His first team break came on the 19 September a year later in a 1-1 draw against Valencia, but he was still yet to grab the headlines with his performances. That came the season after, when he scored nine goals for Celta Vigo's reserves who impressively finished sixth in the third tier of Spanish football.
At the start of last season, Celta Vigo had lost influential attacker Brais Mendez to Real Sociedad, as well as Denis Suarez and lacked creativity in the final third. Veiga started the season, featuring in the odd cameo appearance off the bench until Eduardo Coudet was sacked after a poor run of no wins in five games. Former Sheffield Wednesday manager Carvalhal heralded Veiga, as his new attacking midfielder and give him the freedom to hurt teams.
He became the perfect box-to-box midfielder who was composed on the ball and would be deployed as a number 10 on the counter. His trademark was to drift out onto the right-wing, showcasing his penetrative dribbling skills and then cutting back onto his favoured left-foot. In the final third he became the perfect poacher, whose movement and awareness allowed him to find space, unmarked in dangerous positions. In February, he beat Benzema, Vinicius and Griezmann to the La Liga player of the month after scoring four goals in four games.
Likened to Juan Mata he still has a lot to improve, especially his calmness on the ball where last season his poor decision making and erratic behaviour did lead to him often losing possession. As well as, while he is very good offensively he is a vulnerability defensively and needs to find an all round balance to his game.
His break-through season earnt him a call-up to Spain's U-21 European Championships squad, but he was rarely utilised by manager Santi Denia on their run to the final.
Since, a host of top European clubs have been circling around his £40m release clause this summer with Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City and Napoli all interested. The Scudetto champions had agreed on a £35m deal with personal terms finalised for a five year contract, but it stalled over Napoli trying to change the details of the agreement. Today, it was announced Saudi giants Al Ahli have agreed a deal to poach the young midfielder, but it feels as if moving out of Europe is such a poor move for one of Spain's brightest future stars.
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