The player of the sub-21 and Espanyol is one of the means of his generation that most intrigues the big European clubs

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"We are a country of midfielders," said Marc Roca, who had been styled like a bachelor and who smiled a smile of satisfaction, immersed in the uniform of the Spanish national team, about to sit down to eat with Carles Aleñà, Mikel Merino, Igor Zubeldia, Pablo Fornals and Carlos Soler, crème de la crème of the last litter of national fliers, during the rally that Luis de la Fuente's sub-21 completed this week in Marbella before competing for the European category next June.

The abundance of midfielders in Spain invites us to think of an implacable formative logic. Marc Roca, who faces Barcelona on Saturday in the Nou Camp League derby, warns that he jumped onto the scene by chance.

"A coach came to Cadet A of Espanyol, mid-season," he recalls, "I was on the left side and he said: 'I do not see you as a side!' And I said: 'I'm not lateral. I'm a midfielder! "

"I was clear about my brothers," he explains. "They are mediocentros, and very good ones. Right-handed They played in Third. I am the only left-hander in my house ... And by chance of life, the partner who was playing midfielder in the Espanyol cadet got injured, got a cold, had some vomiting, I do not know what happened to the other ... and the coach told me got into the second part. I scored a goal and from there everything went up ".

            

His career went so well that during the first two months of the current season, Marc Roca became the U-21 midfielder most examined by the major European clubs. There was not a Espanyol match that did not gather scouts from Arsenal, Tottenham, PSG, Barça, Madrid or City - in search of Fernandinho's successor - all of them were waiting to interpret prodigious signals from the skinny man who handed out the game. Until the Valladolid-Espanyol on October 23 (1-1), the left-hander born in La Granada (Barcelona) in 1996 made a display of such value that he converted his clause of rescission of 40 million euros in an apparent bargain.

I wanted the ball always and continuously. It was a whirlwind of mobility asking his teammates to pass him the ball. Even when he was close to him, he knew how to escape with precise control-with his left or right hand-that served to divide the game quickly and amazingly infallibly. When his colleagues received their shipments they were placed on the show stage. "He sent the ball tense, with control already done," observed a coach who reported him to an English club.

"What gives me the most pleasure is to play my teammates well by giving them the ball with an advantage," admits Marc Roca.

He was at the peak of his expression when Espanyol, before Christmas, began to deflate. In the middle of the identity crisis of the model, the player who suffered the most was the flag-bearer of Rubi, the coach who implanted the 4-3-3 in Cornellá. The passes that he used to make with tyrant lines were progressively intercepted by opponents. The decisions obfuscated him and deconcentrated him. Deconcentration fueled the error. After a period of darkness, he regained his lucidity as Espanyol recovered.

"One of the most difficult things to do is filter a ball between two midfielders," he explains, "or between a midfielder and an end when they are closed. In the end it is to try to see where your partner can gain space. To make an inside pass between lines it is very important to give the ball strong and to pass. Because if the ball does not pass you mount a counterattack. I really like doing it. But you have to be careful not to abuse it because the teams end up studying you, they close you and they catch you. "

In eight months the envoys of the big clubs learned that Marc Roca brings together the most delicate technical qualities. It remains to know if it possesses the character of those who rebel against destiny. The ineffable line that separates the good from the extraordinary. A line that the Camp Nou helps to reveal in each game.