Nolito has signed for Manchester City, where he will work with Pep Guardiola, one of the coaches who, along with Luis Enrique, has believed in him the most throughout his career.

Ivan San Antonio

The forward will continue his growth at one of the Premier League's biggest sides and, after several years of fighting for a return to Barcelona, he is really happy about that fact. But his desire was to play at Camp Nou, where his grandad predicted he would play one day. And even though he debuted in the first team under Guardiola, he wasn't able to consolidate his place - despite the fact he did more than most players would to play for the club.

Inside Barça they say that his exit from Barça B is one of the reasons they haven't taken a chance on him since. The first person to be cheated, in this sense, is Luis Enrique, who has insisted on his signing to the point of exhaustion, even though he's not obtained an honest answer from those who run the club.

They refer to his move to Benfica from Barça B in 2011. Nolito signed for the Portuguese club in January because he hadn't reached an agreement to renew with Barça. In a meeting with Narcis Julia and Zubizarreta in 2010, Nolito asked for a first team wage to renew. That was the only condition, given that he would earn double at Benfica. The club didn't want to use the clause used with Bartra and Montoya and responded: "We are tired of players going for free or not being able to do an exchange." So Nolito decided to sign for Benfica because no-one assured him he would be a first team player.

Someone who had, though, was Guardiola, who said: "I want you to form part of the first team next season." But Nolito had already signed for Benfica. Not giving up, though, Nolito decided to phone the Portuguese side's president, Luis Filipe Vieira, and asked him to allow him to continue at Barça. The response was that Barça would have to pay his 20 million euro release clause. Nolito didn't get off to a good start in Portugal, perhaps because that phone call did not go down well.

SECOND CHANCE

As the years passed and Luis Enrique took over at Barça, Nolito returned to the club's agenda. Since the very first day, Luis Enrique has wanted him. But not the club, who have always beat around the bush, to the point that in a meeting about the deal one director said that "it's Luis Enrique's impulse and we'll do everything possible not to sign him." And that's what they did.

Celta Vigo received an offer of eight million euros in the summer of 2015, nowhere near his 18 million euro clause. The offer, opposed to increasing, then diminished when Barça returned in January of 2016, offering three million euros for a loan until the end of the season. Celta rejected that bid. But Nolito continued to believe that he would sign for Barcelona in the summer and rejected January offers from Arsenal (where he'd have quadrupled his Celta salary) and Atletico Madrid.

The reality is that everything Barça did to try and sign Nolito was to keep Luis Enrique happy, but not to close an operation. Meanwhile, and up until the very last moment, Nolito continued asking if anyone had called from Camp Nou.