Dani Ceballos Admits He Didn’t ‘Enjoy Football’ at Real Madrid After Taking Chance With Arsenal

?Arsenal loanee Dani Ceballos insists that he’s very happy he left Real Madrid during the summer transfer window after admitting he wasn’t enjoying life down the pecking order at the Santiago Bernabéu.

The 23-year-old joined Unai Emery’s side on a season-long loan in the summer, and he has already made an impression on fans in north London, impressing with his passing and dribbling and opening his account for the club in their recent 4-0 win over Standard Liège in the Europa League group stage.

Ceballos’ future beyond this season looks set to be with his parent club, but the midfielder insists he needed to move away from the Spanish capital to start enjoying his football again after a frustrating two years with Los Blancos.

FBL-EUR-C3-ARSENAL-STANDARD

It was clear I wanted to leave,” Ceballos told Marca“I’ve been successful in leaving, now I’m where I want to be and I’m very happy.

“My idea was to leave, play and enjoy football. In the previous two years, I hadn’t done that.”

Ceballos has fought his way back into Spain’s senior national team where he’s forming a partnership with Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets in central midfield, playing together most recently in a 2-1 win over Romania.

Dani Ceballos,Sergio Busquets

On top of his relationship with Busquets, the Arsenal loanee also spoke about the possibility of featuring for Spain both at next year’s Euro 2020 finals as well as the Olympic Games in Tokyo – a competition last won by Neymar’s Brazil three years ago.

I love playing with Busquets,” he added. “He measures the time and speed of the game very well. He’s a reference for young people.


I could play in the Euros and the Olympics. It’d be a dream for me to be in Tokyo.”

Despite featuring in every game for the Gunners this season, Ceballos still hasn’t completely nailed down a starting spot, something which would help cement his place with Spain. 

But with Mesut Özil being ostracised under Emery, Ceballos could see his chances increase even more this season as he looks to make a statement before returning to Madrid.


For more from Ben Carter, follow him on Twitter!

Let’

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *