Fer López is Wolverhampton Wanderers‘ first signing of the 2025 summer window, but his £19m transfer raised a few eyebrows considering he’s only played 668 minutes of top-flight football at Celta Vigo. Sometimes clubs have to take a gamble, though, and this feels like a good one.
Life after Iago Aspas had been a long-term concern for Celta Vigo. He was, after all, a player who had outscored everyone in La Liga bar Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Antoine Griezmann, and Luis Suárez in the 21st century – all while doing a lot more than just scoring goals. And having already come to their rescue many times, Celta’s flirtations with relegation seemed to serve as forewarnings for what the future could look like once their legendary captain did finally fade out.
By the end of the 2024-25 campaign, however, that concern level had fallen to an unprecedented low. Not only did Celta seal a European return – one that was way ahead of schedule after the failed Rafa Benítez project – but they had also done it with Aspas only starting six league games from mid-December onwards. Throw in the emergence of 21-year-old Fer López during that time and it seemed as if Celta’s ultra-dependence on Aspas might finally be over.
For those invested in the club’s future, the timing couldn’t have looked any better. Celta were suddenly back in Europe, led by one of their own in manager Claudio Giráldez, with an overwhelming backbone of academy players driving their success and, at last, had a future attacking star to attach themselves to in the post-Aspas era.
And then the Premier League came calling.
To the dismay of many, López won’t be stepping into the shoes of Iago Aspas. He won’t even make Celta’s pre-season. Wolverhampton Wanderers will now take charge of his immediate future, having presented a £19 million offer that, according to a club statement issued by Celta, more than satisfied all parties involved.
For the Galicians, their general outlook remains rosy. But the loss of López stands as a painful, premature exit of a player who had only begun to scratch the surface of his ability, even if it does benefit them greatly in financial terms.
The Quick Summary of His Rookie Season
For a buying club, the main doubt with López at this stage inevitably revolves around his lack of football and obvious headline numbers. Say you’re a Wolves fan looking through some basic stats, you might be a little underwhelmed to see 17 league games, two goals and zero assists on the page.
There’s a bit of context we ought to clear up here, though.
The youngster made his La Liga debut against Mallorca in December but was forced off before half-time with an ankle sprain that would push his next start back until February. From there, López gradually began to chip away with a string of eye-catching cameo performances and would, eventually, work his way back into the starting XI on a more regular basis for the most crucial stretch of the season. With European qualification on the line, he would go on to start four of their final six defining league games of the campaign.
That was a sizeable vote of confidence. Mostly for the fact that Giráldez has a slightly unusual penchant for rotation. Even with the best part of a week between most games, Celta would average just under four starting XI changes per match in La Liga (3.9) last term; the second-most in the league. In short, Giráldez puts a lot of stock into player profiles and what is needed on an individual game basis, depending on their opposition analysis. He has no problem disposing of a starter who had played notably well a week earlier (which never feels any less surprising when it happens).
As for the Wolves side of the chip, they’ll be well aware they’re paying a sizable amount of money for a young footballer who’s only just arrived on the scene. But the fact is, even without the obvious, eye-popping numbers to his name, there was a huge amount to like about López’s introduction at the elite level.
In the era of detailed analysis and advanced statistics to supplement those expert eyes, it’s not all that difficult to see how Wolves arrived at their final conclusion. Let’s take a look at what they’re getting…
How Does Fer López Play?
In his own words, López is a classic mediapunta; the Spanish term for an attacking midfielder who makes things happen in the opposition half, most typically from a central position.
Though it sounds somewhat idealistic in the modern game – what with the ‘death of the no. 10’ often cited in recent years – Celta didn’t have much trouble accommodating him in their plans last season. Nor did López struggle to translate his mediapunta talents to the top level, without having that specific role. From the jump, it was clear that the youngster knew how to interpret the game beyond his years, displaying an intelligence with and without the ball to serve his natural talent.
Whether as the right-sided attacker in a 3-4-3 or right-sided central midfielder in a 4-3-3, the youngster would quickly make the ‘pockets’ between the opposition’s midfield and defence his wheelhouse. The ‘right’ was only a starting point. Regardless of which system Celta used, López was free to play inside and pick up those central spaces as he saw them, while leaving the width to a wing-back or winger on his right shoulder.
The 21-year-old’s attributes were made for the middle of the pitch, as Giráldez very well knew.
For a player who hadn’t played league football above the Spanish third tier until December 2024, the new kid on the block arrived with a sophistication beyond his years and experience. Unlike most youth graduates who initially struggle to adapt to all sorts of new top-level demands – be it speed of play, positional sense, or managing detailed coaching instruction, to name just a few – López almost instantly looked like a player at home at the elite level. The technical skill was there and so was the intelligence to navigate his way through the game.
That sense of ‘plug-and-play’ could be seen in a number of his cameos last season. In the examples below from a match against Las Palmas in March, we can see not only how quickly he got to grips with the game and began to make an impact, but how varied his contribution was from that starting ‘pocket’ position. Within a little over 20 minutes after coming on as a half-time substitute, López would act as a catalyst in three separate moves that yielded notable chances for Celta.
In the first of those, López initially offers a testing run between centre-back and left-back that teammate Marcos Alonso turns down. When the pass doesn’t arrive, he drifts back in on the blind side of those defenders and into his usual ‘pocket’ position, arriving just on time to connect with a Fran Beltrán pass. And once there, López spins out in one quick motion, keeping markers at his back, before threading in Sergio Carreira to square a dangerous ball across the face of goal.
Less than two minutes later, he was back causing another headache between the lines. Having spun away from his markers upon receiving the previous one, this time López waits for Dário Essugo to get close and then darts away in the opposite direction, making sure the ball is well shielded along the way.
From there, he quickly lifts his head up to survey the scene and picks out Ilaix Moriba’s run with a chipped diagonal pass, sending him through one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Another immediate advantage created.
And not long after that, López shows his opponents another new look. Having picked the ball up in the right-sided pocket on the previous two occasions, this time he finds a weak spot behind Las Palmas’ midfield pair and darts inside to make himself an option. Again, he receives the ball on the half turn and spins away from Essugo, keeping him on his back and out of position to be able to rob the ball, before feeding Alfon González to drive from wide.
And having started the move from the right side of the pitch, López ends it with an underlapping run on the left in support of Alfon, leaving him a cut-back away from generating a big scoring chance for Celta (if not for a last-ditch Juanma Herzog intervention).
In what is generally considered one of the hardest areas of the pitch to play in, the 21-year-old’s debut season showed that he is well ahead of schedule for a player of his age and on-field role. Finding his way around congested central areas, receiving the ball on the half-turn in traffic, and varying his movement so as not to become too predictable already look like natural parts of his game.
Indeed, it’s that intelligence that has removed the initial barriers to showing off his natural talent.
López Made His Presence Felt, Even if Minutes Were in Short Supply
That is, of course, the grand attraction and main reason why the Premier League has already come calling. López is a creator of action in the opposition half, and he achieves it in a variety of ways, often in combination with one another.
“When I get the ball, I try to be as vertical as possible, drive with the ball, look for the final pass, and also shoot so I can chip in with goals,” he told Wolves TV in his first interview after signing.
Though not particularly quick across the ground, López is an effective ball carrier who moves under control and is hard to dispossess without fouling. It says much about his craft that, even without that speed off the mark, he still averaged 2.4 completed dribbles per 90 in La Liga last season; more than a handful of other notable young attacking midfielders across Europe’s big five leagues, such as Rayan Cherki, Nico Paz and Tyler Dibling.
For López, the key is in pairing his dribbling with excellent upfield vision. Whether he’s jinking in tight areas in front of the defence or driving with the ball through the thirds, the youngster has shown a real poise to be able to stay under control and attach a meaningful final action – be it a shot, pass or chance created – at the end of a run with the ball.
López wields the double-edged sword of being able to beat defenders with a dribble and beat them with passes. In terms of the latter, that’s referring to passes that cut through the opposition’s last line or a defensive-line-breaking pass in Opta parlance. López averaged 1.75 of those per 90 in his debut La Liga campaign, which we can assure you, Wolves fans, is a number to like.
To give that some much-needed context, that was the second highest per 90 average by a player 23 or under in Europe’s big five leagues last season. The only player ahead of him? That’d be the man we expect to become the most expensive signing in British football history, provided a few add-ons are met, in Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz.
For those who saw López play last season and have no reference of data, going purely on the eye test, you’d still be likely to come to a similarly positive conclusion on him. When he was on the pitch, he almost always made things happen. All of us watching along could concur on that.
But the data reinforces that feeling. Accounting for the grand sum of López’s attributes, and furthering our ‘made things happen’ take, there is absolutely no doubt that he had a big impact on Celta’s ability to create goal-scoring chances when he was on the pitch. Using Opta’s sequence data, we can even put a number on the idea that he positively influenced the Celta moves that he was involved in and compare it to both his teammates, as well as other players across the league.
Of players with 500+ minutes played in La Liga last season, López ranked 11th in the division for xG sequence involvement per 90 (0.95). In layman’s terms, that means that the spells of play he was involved in produced an average of almost one expected goal per 90 minutes played. For some comparison against the elite, the three standout attackers in La Liga last term – Raphinha, Lamine Yamal and Kylian Mbappé – ranged between 1.11 and 1.16 in the same ranking.
Indeed, if you were to exclude players from the big three sides – Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid – it would leave López alone at the top of the pack, and by a sizable distance to the next winger or attacking midfielder on the list, in the outstanding Álex Baena (0.77).
The main caveat against the 21-year-old is, of course, his limited game time. Though we’ve accounted for the reasons why earlier on, López played the equivalent of just seven full La Liga games last term – a number which leads us to do plenty of projecting as far as it relates to his progression.
Except, that is precisely the business Wolves are in. While being aware that López is still very green in his exposure, they have clearly made the judgement that the quality of his minutes – both via the eye test and what the data says – paints him in a favourable light as a future investment. Were they to wait another 12 months in the name of gathering more reinforcing data, the chance that he’d either be poached by another club or twice as expensive to buy would be very high. Now was the time to move.
Along with what they’ll have taken in terms of the attributes, style, and production previously mentioned, Wolves will also no doubt have been heartened by a number of displays on less tangible fronts. Take his late-season display against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu, for example.
In a game where Real Madrid had taken a 3-0 lead, they would end the affair clinging on to a one-goal advantage following a second-half onslaught by Celta. At the forefront of that comeback was López, who showed plenty of personality given the surroundings and the fact it was a crucial match in his team’s push for Europe. So much so that he was the only midfielder or forward to play the entire game for the visitors.
Starting the game in his typical creative role, starting from the right side, he would end it in central midfield as an aggressive Celta looked to exert their control and keep Madrid pinned back in their own territory. He completed 44 of his 47 passes, both welcoming the responsibility of taking the ball at the feared Bernabéu and having played a crucial role in the comeback itself. In the final half hour, where Celta got it back to 3-2 and made Thibaut Courtois work to keep it like that, the only player on either side to make more passes in that period than López (26) was wing-back Óscar Mingueza (30).
Indeed, his final pass completion rate of 94% just happened to be the highest by an under-21 midfielder or forward for a visiting side in a La Liga game at the Bernabéu since Lionel Messi (96%), all the way back in October 2006.
With the way that the 21-year-old went on to finish the season, there was certainly a sense of unfinished business. Finding his protagonism as a starter late on, he was probably one of very few footballers who were desperate to keep playing at the end of a long campaign. And most certainly, Celta fans were desperate to see more of him; a chance they assumed they would get on the other side of the summer.
That privilege – or so they hope – will now fall upon supporters of Wolverhampton Wanderers. But even if there’s a very clear vacancy for creativity, what with the team losing Matheus Cunha and Rayan Aït-Nouri this summer, it’d be wise to temper one’s expectations for a young player who is still at the very beginning of his professional career, and whose eventual move has arrived earlier than expected.
Wolves fans won’t need reminding that Vitinha – one of the world’s best midfielders, and maestro of perhaps the world’s best current club side – spent an uneventful season on loan at Molineux in 2020-21 at roughly the same age that López is now.
Suffice to say, successful transfers aren’t guaranteed on talent alone. There will be plenty of barriers for both club and player on the road to their ideal outcome. But with all that they can know for now, betting on the youngster is a decision that you can imagine Wolves would return to take again, whatever happens next.
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Precocious Fer López Is a Gamble Worth Making for Wolves Opta Analyst.
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