The Catalan extreme Álex Collado has become this Thursday the seventh signing of Betis this summer. The 24-year-old footballer leaves the ranks of FC Barcelona to join the Verdiblanco team for the next six seasons, until 2029.
Born in Sabadell, he went through the lower categories of Espanyol and Barça. He landed at the blaugrana entity in 2009 and since his arrival he has gone through all the categories of the club. In the Barça subsidiary he became indisputable, earning his debut with the first team in the 2018-19 season. He did not have continuity and would only end up playing a few minutes in another game the following season.
He went on loan to Granada and Elche the last two years, looking for that continuity that he had not achieved in the Blaugrana first team. Last season he played 15 league games with the Elche team, scoring one goal. Now, with Ramón Planes in the sports management of Betis, a person who knows Collado very well from his time in the technical secretariat of the Catalan club, lands at Benito Villamarín. His signing was a personal bet, they say from Seville.
Collado had a contract in force with FC Barcelona for one more year, but they assure that he would have given up part of his remaining salary in order to consummate his transfer to Betis. It is expected that in the next few hours he will join the team and be available to travel to the pre-season tour that the Verdiblancos will carry out in the United States and Mexico.
This is a firm commitment from the Sevillian team, which has offered him a long contract of six seasons. The seventh signing of the summer after the arrivals of Ayoze Pérez, Héctor Bellerín, Marc Bartra and Isco Alarcón and the transfers of Marc Roca and Chadi Riad.
Collado himself said goodbye to the culé fans today with a video that he published on social networks and in which he assured that, although he would have liked to "have contributed more", he is happy to have "fulfilled the dream" of debuting in the first team and "with the feeling of having given everything".
"Now it's time to close a stage, open a new path and face new challenges. From a distance, I will continue to support like one more culé", concludes the youth squad player.
