By the age of 25, Yannick Carrasco has already played for one of the best team in France, one of the best team in Spain, one of the best national side and for a Chinese club, Dalian Yifang. Well after all the world is a strange place to live right.
Once one of the most sort out talent in Europe, many touted Carrasco to be the next big thing. But it’s been hard to describe the Belgian’s career. He has gone from winning the League 2 in France to scoring in the Champions League final against Real Madrid to losing 8-0 in his debut game in China to finishing 3rd with Belgium in the World Cup. And all this even before he peaked.
Carrasco started his professional career at Monaco after staring for their youth team. Still in League 2, Monaco were eager to bring back their glory days and in a hope to win promotion, they brought in Claudio Ranieri at the helm. The Italian promoted Carrasco and he soon returned him the favour by guiding Monaco to the league 2 title. In his breakthrough season, Carrasco played a total of 31 games, scoring 8 times.
Yannick Carrasco arriving to training during his time at Monaco
After winning promotion, Monaco invested heavily on new players. Radamel Falcao came from Atlético and James Rodríguez was signed from Porto. New players meant lesser first team opportunities for Carrasco and he could only manage 17 starts across all competitions as Monaco finished runners up to PSG.
Before the start of 2014/15 season, James made the big money to Real Madrid and Falcao joined Manchester United on a season long loan deal. This came as a boost for Carrasco as he became a crucial player for Monaco and guided them to a champions league place. He amassed a total of 52 games that season which was by far one of his best till date.
His exploits for Monaco prompted Atlético Madrid to sign the winger on a 5 year deal for a fee around €20m.
At Atlético, Carrasco established himself as one of the best winger as he and Atlético made it to the champions league final for the 2nd time in 3 seasons. Carrasco came on as a 2nd half sub and soon became the first Belgian to score in the champions league final. The game went into penalties and it was Zidane’s side who came out on top once again. Despite that defeat in Milan, Carrasco was highly praised for his performance as he booked his place in Belgium’s Euro 2016 squad.
Over the next one and a half season, Carrasco made around 80 appearances for the Calderón based side. But he shocked everyone by deciding to leave one of Europe’s best team for Chinese Super League side, Dalian Yifang who made a lucrative offer which Carrasco described as “too hard to refuse.”
WATCH: 10 MINUTES OF YANNICK CARRASCO DESTROYING THE CHINESE SUPER LEAGUE
After guiding Dalian to a 11th place finish, Carrasco is on the move once again after only a year in China as Arsenal look set to sign him. And with his best years still left to come, Yannick Carrasco can reignite his career at the Emirates.
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