Scout Report: Rodrigo Bentancur
A player making huge strides in Argentina at the moment is 18-year-old Rodrigo Bentancur; the attacking midfielder is one of the brightest players to come out from Boca Juniors in years and is set to take the footballing world by storm.
Just to prove how good he is regarded, when Juventus sold Carlos Tevez to Boca Juniors, they also secured the first rights for the young Bentancur who has been part of the Boca Juniors academy since he was nine-years-old.
The Uruguayan recently spoke about how he would love to play in a bigger league, England and Spain being his preferred destinations and already has been linked with a big-money move to Real Madrid. He also openly talked about his admiration for Manchester United.
He said,
“I found out through my agent and the press and obviously I’m greatly honoured and proud that Real Madrid are interested in me.
“Ever since I was a kid, the Premier League and Manchester United have most caught my eye.”
The Uruguayan dream
Bentancur joined the academy in Argentina at the tender age of nine and has been wowing coaches ever since. The 18-year-old is certainly built to be a footballer in Europe and he made his debut for the side in April 2015. Rodrigo plays in the midfield position and is known to be a playmaker, someone who is always looking to do something with the ball and help his team out.
Being a midfielder Bentancur has great vision even though he is relatively young and can thread those important through balls to his teammates. The 18-year-old has great composure on the ball as well and has great game intelligence and vision which often takes years to develop for a player.
Bentancur is someone who likes to control the game and often wants the ball from his teammates to make something happen. His precision play, especially when it comes to passes is something to marvel at and he even is known to be a great shooter of the ball from distance.
He is best suited to play in central midfield where he can have a big say as to how the game progresses but he is equally adept at playing higher up the field just behind the striker. Rodrigo could well be looking for a move to Manchester United as he has spoken highly about the club but he still needs to perform at the level which he has achieved at Boca Juniors. The Argentine League might not be the toughest in the world and moving to any European league would be a real test for Rodrigo and hopefully he can achieve all that he can with the potential he has got.