Highly rated Spanish defender arrives on loan from La Liga side Real Sporting de Gijón.
We are pleased to confirm the signing of Julio César Rodríguez López from Spanish La Liga side Real Sporting de Gijón. Julio joined the Club last night on loan for the 2016/17 season and will initially join up with the Reds development squad.
Having represented the Spanish National team at U18 and U19 level, Rodriguez is held in high regard and joins Barnsley after already making over 50 appearances for Sporting’s B side, at the age of just 20.
Standing at 6ft 4’ in height, Julio is a commanding, ball-playing centre back that possesses fantastic strength, aerial ability and an eye for a pass. He has the ability to use both feet as well as having an instinctive turn of pace.
On adding the defender to the Development Squad, Academy Head of Recruitment Bobby Hassell said, “Julio is someone we became aware of at the start of this year, so we monitored his progress and performances. We watched a lot of clips from his games in Spain, as well as having our team fly over to watch him.
“His ability to control the play from defence is excellent. He has a lot of attributes that I feel the Club can work with, and with our help I am sure he can become an excellent player.”
Watch the video above and see what Reds fans can look forward to in Julio Rodríguez!
We’ll be putting the fans questions to Julio as part of our ‘Getting To Know…’ series, which will appear on Barnsley Player HD! Want to ask the Reds latest summer signing a question? Tweet your questions to @bfc_offical and use the hashtag #AskJulio
