‘Dubbed the new Pedri’ - a lazy comparison or a compliment to the production line at Las Palmas? I’ll let you decide but there’s no doubting the comparisons between the two of them they even look alike!
I’ve been an admirer of Moleiro’s since last year in FM22 where he was part of my successful Villarreal side, playing off the left hand side of an attacking three behind another beast, Benjamin Sesko.
When you are as highly rated as Moleiro and have the comparison to Pedri, there will be no surprises that he’s been linked with some of the biggest clubs in Europe including Liverpool and Barcelona, he was always praised by Spain manager Luis Enrique during a Twitch stream when his analyst mentioned him:
“I like the boy from Las Palmas a lot, Alberto Moleiro. He is very talented, he can play in the middle, he can play out wide, he interprets space very well, a player of quality.”
“Ah, I like him a lot,” reacted Luis Enrique
Alberto Moleiro in Football Manager 2023
As I have alluded to before, you can find Moleiro playing for Las Palmas in the second tier of Spanish football and there is a chance that you will have to act fast in the transfer window if you want to secure his future potential for two reasons; 1 – he'll get signed by a big club and tied up to a decent long term contract & 2 – from the saves I have monitored him in, you’ll want him early so you can get the most out of his potential, I have seen him signed by Manchester City on numerous saves and he sits in the reserves for a number of years stagnating to no more than an average player at best, however when he is signed and developed he can become one of the best players you will manage for the outlay.
With Brighton I had to wait until the January window for him to be willing to speak to me, a direct £5m offer was enough to Las Palmas to automatically accept however you can get a deal done with minimal outlay and future add-ons if you are playing poundstretcher.
With regards to his best position, it really depends on how you develop him, I think out of the box he is best played in the number 10 position behind the striker but he is equally skilled enough to play anywhere across the front three attacking positions. At 5’7” he is your typical diminutive Spanish playmaker so don’t expect him to be leading the charts for headers won but what you can expect from him is excellent technical skills, his attributes for First Touch 15, Technique 16, Flair 15 & Vision 15 at the age of 18 tell you everything you need to know about this diamond ready for polishing.
In FM23 this is how he has developed after a number of years in the Manchester City U23 side:
In FM22 this is what he looked like 5 years into the game with my own development.
Summary
A Premier League bargain or an affordable transfer for leagues without massive finances makes him a go to for anyone in and around the top European leagues. I chose Brighton as the club to try and sign him as that feels like the kind of club he would sign for and be allowed to develop before making a £60-70m transfer to one of the elite clubs. I’ve enjoyed managing him across two saves now and I know he’s destined for a move over the next 18 months so get him while you can!