The 19-year-old midfielder has also been linked with Manchester City and Arsenal after lighting up the Spanish second division with Las Palmas

From David Silva to Pedri, Pedro to Yeremi Pino, the Canary Islands have become a hotbed of footballing talent in recent years, with a number of Spain's most technically-gifted footballers hailing from the likes of Tenerife and Gran Canaria having been brought up playing street football.

Pedri is the current footballing poster boy for the islands, having been raised in Tenerife before heading across to Gran Canaria to join Las Palmas, from whom he was bought by Barcelona before becoming arguably the most impressive midfield talent on the planet.

The conveyor belt is not stopping, though, and it might not be long before Pedri is joined at Camp Nou by another Canary Islander who has trodden a similar path to the Barca starlet.

Alberto Moleiro has been earning rave reviews in the Spanish second division with Las Palmas, and the 19-year-old is now being linked with some of Europe's biggest clubs, including Barcelona themselves.

But what makes him so special? Allow NXGN to explain…

Getty ImagesWhere it all began

Born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife – the island's capital – to a Cuban father and a Canarian mother, the vast majority of Moleiro's footballing education came at amateur side CD Sobradillo.

It was not until 2018, when he was 15 years old, that he was picked up by Las Palmas and enrolled into the club's academy.

Just over a year later he made his debut for the club's reserve side, Las Palmas Atletico, who play in the lower reaches of Spanish football, but that would be one of only two times he turned out for Atletico in the truncated 2019-20 campaign.

AdvertisementThe big break

Moleiro didn't really kick-on in 2020-21, making just another two appearances for Atletico, but by the start of the following campaign he wasn't just in the first-team squad, but starting regularly for manager Pepe Mel.

"From the first day I saw him training, I realised that he had something different," Mel told shortly after handing Moleiro his debut. "He was a child, but since then he has grown a lot physically."

Mel slotted Moleiro into his team as their No.10, but following his mid-season sacking, new coach Garcia Pimienta moved the teenager out wide, predominantly starting him on the left wing.

Moleiro was still able to have an impact, scoring three times over the course of the season as Las Palmas reached the play-offs, and impressing enough for the reports of Barcelona's interest to start surfacing.

Getty ImagesHow it's going

They weren't just reports, either. Moleiro has since revealed that there was an offer on the table from Barca to bring him to Catalunya over the summer, but that the deal fell through when Barcelona's financial issues meant that they could not get it over the line.

"It was two or three weeks after the end of the season," he explained to . "My agent told me that the offer existed, but there were also many rumours and things that were not true."

A boyhood Barca fan, Moleiro has put any disappointment he might have had about the decision not to sell him behind him in the early weeks of the season.

Handed the No.10 shirt and restored to a more central role, he has already provided three assists in the Segunda Division and earned his first Spain Under-21s caps.

Biggest strengths

Watching Moleiro can sometimes feel like you're watching two different players, such is his almost unique skillset.

He possesses the close control and press-resistant awareness of space of a modern-day midfielder, while also having the electric pace and dribbling ability of a natural winger.

It is a potent combination, and makes him highly elusive regardless of whether he lines up centrally or out wide.

He also has a decent shot on him, but it is his ability to take defenders out of the game, either by keeping the ball himself or playing in others, that truly makes him stand out.