Chelsea & Liverpool battling for €50m La Liga star | OneFootball

Real Betis winger Jesus Rodriguez has attracted transfer interest from Chelsea and Liverpool, according to a report.

Alongside the surprisingly swift adaptation of Manchester United loanee Antony, the fleet-footed 19-year-old has been a bright spark in a largely underwhelming season for Betis. The Seville-born forward made his senior debut last Halloween, teeing up a goal in a Copa del Rey rout of non-league CD Gevora within 20 minutes of his arrival. Rodriguez's rise over the subsequent four months has been scary.

Manuel Pellegrini has trusted the teenager to start Betis' last seven La Liga matches, watching his prodigious forward score his first goal for the club against Alaves and win the penalty which Isco converted in a deserved victory over Real Madrid last weekend.

Rodriguez's old school approach of taking on his man at each and every opportunity has prompted admiring glances from Chelsea and Liverpool, according to the Daily Mail. The teen extended his contract as recently as September, putting pen to paper on a five-year deal which includes a €50m (£42m) release clause.

When asked about his future in an interview with El Desmarque earlier this year, Rodriguez warned: "Right now I feel like I'm doing well at the club, I have a contract until 2029 and I hope it's many more years. I'm happy here at Betis, I'm working day by day and whatever has to happen, happens. While I'm here I'll give everything for the team."

It took three trials for Betis to spot Rodriguez's innate footballing gifts, eventually ushering him into the club's youth team in the summer of 2021. The deceptively tall, right-footed winger caught Pellegrini's eye with his persistent wriggling on the ball. As Rodriguez himself noted, the two qualities which characterise his strengths are "dribbling and speed".

"If I go up to a team or go to another team I can't lose that," the Spain under-19 international insisted, "because at the end of the day it's my identity. If I go to the first team and now I stop facing up or change my football, which is why I was promoted, at the end of the day I'm throwing dirt on myself. So I can't stop doing those things to please other people."

Rodriguez has emphatically stuck to his principles, attempting an outrageous 8.4 take-ons per 90 this season. Only one La Liga regular can better that staggering productivity; Barcelona's 17-year-old sensation Lamine Yamal.