Recounting Isco's Rise from Malaga Starlet to Real Madrid Star

Isco starred on the front cover of Madrid-based newspaper AS on Friday morning and he will hope to star on his return to Malaga on Saturday. Signed as part of a Spanish overhaul at Real Madrid last summer, his 18 months in white haven't always been as explosive as expected given the £30 million paid for him.

Not that the fee wasn't completely justified. It was.

Malaga had paid Valencia around £4.5 million to bring Isco back to his home town in 2011 with the promise of first-team football. Despite being widely recognised as a promising player for the future, he'd struggled to break into Unai Emery's plans at Los Che and the move back to Andalucia—coupled with the exciting project being headed by Abdullah Al Thani at Malaga at the time—made perfect sense.

Isco's first season was one of promise. He worked largely in the shadows of Santi Cazorla, but as Malaga's Champions League challenge strengthened towards the end of the campaign, the signs became more apparent than ever of the potential he possessed.

Questions that had been raised at the Mestalla about his departure grew in volume. How did they get to a situation where a teenager this talented could leave for such a minuscule release clause? At least they'd received good money for the likes of David Villa, David Silva and Juan Mata in the preceding seasons.

SUNDAY ALAMBA/Associated Press

Fernando Llano/Associated Press

It was in his second season with Malaga that he really began to prove there was more to him than just promise, though. Despite European qualification, Al Thani had began to withdraw his financial backing and Cazorla was one of the players who was sold, joining Arsenal.

It left a gap which Isco—already a regular for Spain U21s at this point—was more than prepared to fill. Under the astute stewardship of Manuel Pellegrini, Malaga battled against chaotic off-the-pitch proceedings to reach the quarterfinals of the Champions League, where they dramatically fell to Borussia Dortmund. They also finished sixth in the league.

With 12 goals—including this belter against Porto—and four assists spread across the two competitions, plus the prestigious Golden Boy award, Europe had awoken to Francisco Roman Alarcon Suarez.

Pellegrini's decision to take the manager's job at Manchester City that summer suggested Isco may also be swapping Spain for England, but Real Madrid proved too good to turn down and it was the Spanish capital, not Manchester, where the midfielder decided the next chapter of his career would unfold.

And his start in Madrid's colours was fantastic. He scored the winning goal on his La Liga debut for the club against Real Betis and there were no doubts that Madrid had signed a crack. He went on to score five goals in his first six appearances.

Perhaps suffering on the back of a long season with Malaga followed by the European Championships with Spain U21s the previous summer, his form then dipped. Carlo Ancelotti handed him a rest and he returned with another flourish in November. During a five-game spell he scored three more and created another three—the Italian coach's decision to take him out of the limelight for a while seemingly justified.

At that time, per the BBC, Ancelotti even talked up comparisons between Zinedine Zidane and Isco. However, over the course of the season he continued to hop in and out of the team, unable to pin down a regular spot and his manager, per Marca, even spoke about playing him as a false nine to accommodate him.

By the beginning of this season he was more out than in. James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos had been signed; Isco was truly on the periphery.

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Mikkel Berg Pedersen/Associated Press

At least until Gareth Bale got injured in October. The Welshman's injury was Isco's chance to prove himself once again and has ultimately led to him featuring on the cover of AS on the eve of his return to Andalusia.

It's not just that he's come in and played well in Bale's absence, it's that he's improved and modified his game. Still capable of the drop of the shoulder and the killer pass that drew comparisons with Andres Iniesta, he's now impressively added a defensive contribution to his game.

The article in Friday's AS crows about his ball recovery. Filling in for Luka Modric alongside Kroos, he recovered the ball nine times against Basel and 12 times against Eibar—more than any other Madrid player. He's also covering a lot of ground and when Ancelotti has all his players fit, it will be more difficult than ever to freeze the 22-year-old out of his side.

Given his performances for Spain in their last two matches, Vicente del Bosque faces a similar conundrum. Saturday's trip to La Rosaleda allows us to reminisce about Isco's past, but it also serves as the latest glimpse at Real Madrid's developing star.