Barcelona's loss is Real Madrid's gain. Marco Asensio grew up as a fan of the Catalan club, but ended up joining Los Blancos instead and marked his competitive debut with a stunning strike in the UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla on Tuesday night. So who is the club's new midfield maestro?
Asensio was born in 1996 to a Spanish father and a Dutch mother on the island of Mallorca. A talented youth player, he was scouted by both of Spain's big two teams but signed for local club Mallorca instead. Years later, however, Barca and Madrid would come calling again.
The midfielder made his debut for Mallorca B as a junior in Spain's Tercera Division, but was quickly promoted to the senior side and appeared for the first time in Spain's second tier in October 2013.
He went on to win a starting spot under Valeri Karpin towards the end of the 2013-14 season and was wanted by both of Spain's big two teams.
Barca moved quickly to reach an agreement with the player and it looked like the midfielder would end up at Camp Nou for a fee of around €4 million. However, the two clubs could not agree on how the money would be paid. Barca wanted the deal to be broken down into variables; Mallorca sought to receive the money up front.
So the negotiations were frozen and Madrid took advantage, sealing the player's signature for a fee of €3.9m. Barca, in the meantime, were happy to spend €5.5m on Douglas - one of the worst signings in their entire history.
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