Since it was broken by Spanish journalist Manuel Noeda a week ago, there has been much talk of Spanish youngster Oriol Rey leaving the club – this is now confirmed by the White (tweet – below).
📰 | Good luck to @OriolRey_6 who has joined @UBConquense until the end of the season pic.twitter.com/1LZTW7pz6u
— Leeds United (@LUFC) August 28, 2018
Noeda had already broached on Twitter that Rey was closing in on a move, yesterday posting that the youngster had already trained with his new teammates ahead of the upcoming move. This was something that we on The72 followed up with here.
Leeds’ official tweet confirms what Noeda put forward, and sets the parameters on what will be a loan until the end of the season. Rey started out as a defensive midfielder for the Barcelona youth side, graduating first to the Juvenil B set-up at the Catalan giants in July 2014. From then it was a promotion to the Juvenil A side where he played the most minutes in the run to the semi-final stage of the 2016/17 UEFA Youth League competition.
This run of games, ended by Red Bull Salzburg’s young stars in a 2-1 defeat, saw Rey come up against sides such as Borussia Monchengladbach and Borussia Dortmund as well as against Celtic and the highly regarded youngsters at Manchester City. He has become a regular in Carlos Corberan’s Under-23 side at Leeds United, and has even been involved with the first-team – including being on the bench for the recent 2-2 Championship draw with Swansea City.
Whilst starting for the Under-23s he has shown that composure on the ball that you’d expect from a graduate that’s been through Barcelona’s fabled La Masia academy system. He’s thought of well at Elland Road, this move out to 2º División B side UB Conquense, who are based in Cuenca, will give him exposure to first-team football that he wouldn’t be guaranteed at Elland Road.
At least for this season his future lies away from Thorp Arch. Rey instead will be playing his football in Spain’s Castilla La Mancha region for Cuenca-based for UB Conquense, a side who play their football in the 2º División B or Spain’s fourth tier.
