A squad packed with young talent including three Under 19 internationals, a recently inaugurated new training complex, the ninth-best attendance in the whole of Spain, and the promise of a new stadium that will host the 2030 World Cup.
It’s little wonder why Liverpool’s owners want to buy Spanish second division club Malaga. They face competition from Paris Saint-Germain’s owners Qatari Sports Investments, who also hold a stake in Portuguese side Braga.
If the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) want to do what Manchester City’s owners City Football Group have done with Girona, Malaga looks like an even more attractive proposition than the Catalan side that broke into the Champions League last season.
As a feeder club where they can mature those under the age of 18 who Brexit rules prohibit them from signing, and ‘park’ over 18s who wouldn’t yet qualify for work permits, Malaga is set up perfectly to develop such young talent.
Five years of being in administration have forced them to lean into their own academy and they currently have three teenagers as mainstays of coach Sergio Pellicer’s first XI.
Antonito Cordero scored the goal that got them promoted back to Spain’s second tier last season. He’s a right-footed left winger and a Spain Under 19 international with five goals in 17 starts this season.
Liverpool owner John W Henry has his eyes on Malaga – but faces competition from PSG
The likes of Izan Merino have become Spain Under 19 internationals in Malaga’s academy
Real Madrid star and former Man City trainee Brahim Diaz came through the Malaga setup
Republic of Ireland Under 19 international Aaron Ochoa Moloney turns 18 this April. The midfielder has a Spanish father and Irish mother and has impressed alongside another Spain Under 19 international and Malaga regular Izan Merino.
This is a club with a healthy recent history of bringing young players through its academy but too often they leave before they can ever make senior debuts.
Current Real Madrid forward Brahim Diaz starred in the club’s youth team before he was signed by Manchester City. Bryan Zaragoza, who was bought by Bayern Munich in January 2024, is another product of the club’s youth system who got away.
And Bournemouth’s 19-year-old Spain defender Dean Huijsen, now one of the hottest centre back prospects in Europe and a £50million target for Real Madrid, was also at Malaga before he was snapped up by the Juventus academy.
Current coach Pellicer, who guided them to promotion last season, has a reputation for developing all this young talent. He made Malaga Spanish youth champions in 2016 and coached them in the UEFA Youth League, the junior version of the Champions League.
His extensive knowledge of every youth category at the club has made him a good fit for a side whose finances have been cleaned up by administration but cannot invest.
Cordero is the jewel in Malaga’s crown but is out of contract at the end of the season and there are fears that he, Moloney and Merino, will leave the club just as Brahim and Huijsen did.
If the club are bought by FSG then Liverpool will have first pick of those players either to eventually blood at Anfield, or to cash in on once they have established themselves.
Malaga owner Sheik Abdullah Al Thani is extremely unpopular with the club’s fans
The club had its glory days in the early 2010s, reaching the Champions League quarter-finals thanks to the likes of star midfielder Isco
Former Arsenal duo Nacho Monreal and Santi Cazorla both joined from Malaga in the 2012-13 season
The prospect of holding on to young talent for long talent for longer, and shaking the club from the clutches of 51 per cent owner Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani, is likely to mean Malaga fans respond positively to any possible sale to FSG.
When City Football Group tried to buy NAC Breda in 2022 they agreed a deal for just 7m euros (£5.85m) but ended up pulling out because there was so much hostile opposition from the Dutch club’s fan base, there will be no such rejection from home supporters at Malaga.
CFG have also seen protests from one of their stable, French club Troyes, after they were relegated to Ligue 2 having had their best player, Savinho, loaned to another sister club, Girona, and then sold to City for £30m last summer.
But ‘Anyone but Al Thani’ is the stock response of Malaga supporters to the suggestion that FSG take over. Al Thani built the club up when he first took over in 2010, and by 2013 Manuel Pellegrini had them in the Champions League quarter-finals. Santi Cazorla, Isco and Nacho Monreal, as well as ageing strike pair Ruud van Nistelrooy and Roque Santa Cruz, all came in.
But they weren’t around for long. Investment was subsequently withdrawn, relegation followed in 2018 and the club went in administration in 2020, with the workforce slashed and the transfer budget reduced to zero.
The club has managed to build a new training complex that was inaugurated last year and their ‘La Rosaleda’ Stadium is set to be rebuilt, taking attendance from 30,000 to 45,000. They will play in a temporary home during seasons 2026-27 and 2027-28 while it is completed.
The stadium, currently owned by three of Malaga’s municipal institutions, will be one of the host venues for the 2030 World Cup, which Spain will co-host with Morocco and Portugal. There is the potential to fill it too. The average attendance of just under 25,000 is better than all the other teams in Spain’s second tier and 12 of the clubs in the top flight.
There were still regular gates of 20,000 last season when they dropped into the third tier. The club is sick and needs our support was the battle cry under which supporters kept turning up.
Malaga’s average attendance of just under 25,000 is better than all the other teams in Spain’s second tier and 12 of the clubs in the top flight
Malaga plan to expand their ground to 45,000 seats and host games at the 2030 World Cup
Malaga has the potential to emulate Girona if the right personnel are put in place to design and manage a coherent project
Manchester City star Savinho came through their multi-club network first at Troyes then on loan at Girona before moving to England for £30m
Malaga has the potential to emulate Girona if the right personnel are put in place to design and manage a coherent project. The Catalan club’s success last season owed as much to coach Michel and experienced football administrators sporting director Quique Carcel and chairman Pere Guardiola (brother of), as it did to City Group investment.
And if it does thrive as Girona has done then Liverpool would benefit. The only longer-term concern will be that if it goes too well there would be greater pushback from fans no longer content to let Liverpool’s needs dominate.
There was dissent from Girona as their Champions League success was rewarded only with their brilliant winger Savinho being whisked off to the Etihad, and star striker and midfielder Artem Dovbyk and Aleix Garcia sold and not properly replaced leaving the side out of its depth in Europe.
But that problem looks a long way off right now. Thanks to the nightmares brought about in recent years of ownership, of more immediate concern will be getting any purchase over the line.
