The round trip of the footballer with four passports

Barcelona"It's hard to figure out how to maintain two countries and not be left behind," sang La Trinca. Well, one of Espanyol's latest signings doesn't have two, but four. He's Luka Warrick Koleosho (Connecticut, United States, 2004). Born to a Nigerian-American father and an Italian-Canadian mother, he could also obtain Spanish nationality if he wanted and would be eligible for selection by five different countries. So far, he's played for the youth teams of the United States and Italy, and has been called up to the Canadian national team. "I don't know anything about Nigeria," he said at his presentation, when he ruled out the African option.

His football career began at Trumbull United, a modest club in Connecticut, before moving on to Manhattan Kickers in New York. There he caught the attention ofscouts internationals. "I have a kid who's amazing! They want him in Holland. Come see him," a former student told Albert Viñas, director of the Internacional Tecnifútbol academy in Salou. He traveled to the United States to convince the parents and the eleven-year-old boy to continue training—paying the academy fees—as a player on the Costa Daurada. They accepted. "He was the youngest, so once or twice a week I took him to my house for dinner so he'd feel welcome and could play with my son," Viñas, his legal guardian in Spain and his father, explained to ARA. He still keeps photos of little Luka on his sofa.

From Reus to Espanyol

When the federation regulations allowed it, he signed for Reus, where he sparked the interest of Espanyol, who signed him at the age of fifteen and welcomed him to La Túrbula, their residence. "The problem was that FIFA wouldn't let him play for a professional club until he was sixteen. We agreed that he would live and study at La Túrbula from Monday to Friday, training with Espanyol's U19 B team, and that on Friday afternoons he would come here to train and play with Reus' U19 A team," explains Viñas Warrick—then not yet known as Koleosho—during the weekends, if necessary driving him from Baix Camp to Barcelona or hosting him for a few days at his home when he contracted Covid.

Albert Viñas, who maintains an excellent relationship with the current technical secretary and the vast majority of La21 staff, lost contact with Luka and his entourage when, at the age of sixteen, he signed his first professional contract. Without prior notice from his parents or the club's sports leadership, the director of Tecnifútbol learned that the agreement had been signed by an unknown American agent and that he had been left out. Koleosho moved to the Juvenil A team and was soon promoted to the reserve team and made his debut with the first team in May 2022, at the age of seventeen. Twelve months later, despite Garagarza's attempts to renew his contract, he headed to Burnley, who paid Espanyol three million.

A call from Canada

By then, he'd already been called up to the U.S. U-20 national team, and Canada's senior team had been chasing him for some time. "We had his name on a list of young players around the world with Canadian ancestry; kids aged sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen. I took advantage of the fact that I was in Barcelona at the end of 2021 to keep an eye on him: I saw him on video and live on La21, and I spoke with coaches who had had him," he said. Tenllado, who had a past in the Paraíso youth system and was one of the assistant coaches to John Herdman, Canada's senior national team coach, met with Koleosho and his agent to sell him on the Canadian project and try to recruit him. They were impressed with Tenllado's analysis.

"We explained to him that he fit the profile we were looking for in his position; a powerful and explosive winger who constantly took on players, similar in quality to Buchanan or Alphonso Davies. He was at Espanyol B and we thought that if we gave him international exposure, we would accelerate his career. We've done that with Eustaquio and Ismaël Koné," explains Tenllado. But COVID prevented Koleosho from traveling to a training camp at the beginning of 2022 and, in his first call-up, in June of that same year, the two friendlies against Iran and Panama were canceled. In September, he also didn't make his debut against Uruguay or Qatar because Luka himself asked not to play, aware that if he took to the field, the door would be closed to representing another national team. Months later, he was part of the Italian U-19 team and last week he received a call from the country's U-21 team. For now, he is opting for theAzzurri, but as he has not yet made his debut with any senior team, he remains eligible for selection in four different territories.

The first operation with Burnley

He's only twenty years old, but Koleosho has already racked up more than fifty matches in English and Spanish professional football. With a market value of twelve million, Garagarza had been tracking him for some time and with the help of Espanyol's new owner, who also owns Burnley, has arranged his return to Barcelona on a one-year loan. "Alan Pace has done a lot to get Luka here," said the Basque player regarding the intermediation of the majority shareholder of Velocity Sport Limited (VSL), which last Sunday lived his live debut. It is the first operation between both clubs, which inaugurates the new timeshare model at Espanyol that has given such good results other teams like Girona.