Norwich City have announced their first new signing of the summer.
Emi Buendia will join the Canaries on July 1st, having agreed a four year deal.
You will have read about 21 year old Buendia, whose first name is Emiliano, everyone seems to be shortening it to Emi, earlier in the week. Just in case you didn’t though, here are the statistics you need to know.
Emi started playing football in earnest in his native Argentina with Cadetes de San Martin before joining Real Madrid in 2009 at the age of 13.
A year later and he joined the youth programme at Getafe, making his first team debut aged just 17.
He made 17 appearances for Getafe in La Liga in 2015/16, which was a relegation season for the Madrid based side, scoring one goal. In 2016/17, Emi made 12 appearances in La Liga 2 as Getafe won promotion back to the top flight, scoring 2 goals.
Last season he was on loan at Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa in the Spanish second tier and he made 42 appearances, scoring 7 goals and providing 11 assists (the second highest in the league). He also picked up the player of the season award but was unable to prevent Leonesa being relegated.
He moves to Norwich, as I say, on a four year deal for a reported fee of around £1.5m, which in the current climate seems an absolute steal.
Getafe are a very tough La Liga side and impressed me when I watched them hold Barcelona to a 0-0 draw in the Nou Camp in February – the first team not to concede against Barca during last season.
They finished 8th last season and are a fixture of La Liga, having spent 13 of the last 15 seasons there.
From what I’ve read and seen of Buendia, he seems to be a very attacking, technically proficient player who looks a bargain at just £1.5m. He can play anywhere across the attacking positions, left side, number 10 or on the right, where he spent most of last season for Leonesa.
In terms of where he’ll fit in, I imagine he is more of a replacement for Alex Pritchard than James Maddison, although with Marley Watkins and Josh Murphy linked with moves away this summer, his signing is timely.
Welcome aboard, Emi.
In case you aren’t sure, Emi is the player in green in the above picture 🙂
OTBC