Is it the end for Harper’s Real Madrid dream?
SINCE the age of 13, Jack Harper’s raison d’etre has been progressing through the ranks of Real Madrid in the hope of one day walking out at the Bernabeu as a fully-fledged first-team player.
But, after six years with Europe’s most successful club, it now appears the Scotland youth international is about to move on from the Spanish capital to pastures new.
Harper, who was born in Malaga to Scottish parents in 1996, is just one of dozens of young players at Real currently re-appraising their futures after the decision was made to axe the third team.
The striker still has two years to run on his Madrid contract but, in all probability, staying on the books would see him farmed out to a lower division club. His father John, who moved his family from Barrhead to the Costa del Sol more than 20 years ago, feels that at the age of 19, his son is now ready for first-team football.
And while not discounting the possibility of Jack staying with Real, he believes his interests may now be better served by making a clean break from the capital.
‘Jack’s still at Madrid but there are a lot of things happening just now,’ he told Sportsmail. ‘Real Madrid’s C team has been scrapped and he has a slight injury too.
‘With that team being disbanded, there are 60 or 70 guys now trying to get into the B team, which obviously doesn’t work.
‘Those that aren’t going to the B team but are staying with the club, they are trying to loan out.
‘Zinedine Zidane (reserve team manager) is picking 24 players but if you don’t want to go, you don’t have to. But the chances of playing in the B team are slim. You’d likely be loaned out to a lower league side and I don’t think that would give boys the right opportunities.
‘Some of them are really good players and, to my mind, they’d end up with poor teams.
‘So he’s either going to go back to Madrid for rehabilitation or he’ll join one of the other teams that are interested in him just now.’
News that Harper is available has alerted clubs throughout Europe with his elder brother Ryan, himself a former player, fielding inquiries on Jack’s behalf.
In all likelihood, though, a move to another Primera Liga club is on the cards, with Harper senior adding: ‘There are other irons in the fire. There are a couple of Spanish teams interested and two English clubs and an Italian one.
‘He’s 19, so it’s got to be right. It’s got nothing to do with money.
‘ He’d get plenty of money staying with Real Madrid B this year. It’s about getting the right chance to progress. That’s all we are interested in.
‘They want him but they want to keep him under their rules and we’re not really thinking that’s the best option football-wise.
‘I just want him to start playing men’s football now. He can’t have another year at youth football.
‘Some of the second division clubs are full of young players and that’s not really what we’re after.
‘There’s plenty of interest in him but it’s a big step. This has got to be the right move where there’s the opportunity of first- team football.
‘He doesn’t really want to be going to another B team. There are plenty of teams in Spain who will take him just now for their first team.
‘It is time that he locked horns with the big football world and started playing first-team football.
‘ Ultimately, that’s what he’s looking for. Worst case scenario, he stays at Real. It’s not too bad.
‘But we probably think this is the time for him to move. He’s maybe getting a bit big to still be under the Real Madrid umbrella.’
Harper hit the headlines without kicking a ball in March when Scotland Under-19 coach Ricky Sbragia explained his omission from the UEFA Elite Round on account of him being a ‘luxury’ player.
The striker had played with Scotland at every age group from Under 15s to Under 19s and was widely seen as a full international of the future.
The former Sunderland manager was roundly criticised for his choice of words — with Harper’s father insisting at the time that Spain were still interested in ‘poaching’ the player for the purposes of international football.
However, he now insists that Jack took no notice of what was said and is still firmly focused on pulling on a dark blue shirt one day.
‘He wasn’t remotely concerned. None of us were,’ he continued. ‘Listen, I’ve got three boys who play football and these things happen.
‘It’s nothing. We move on from it quite happily. Hopefully, one day he does play for Scotland. For us as a family, that’s what the dream is all about. It’s certainly not changed his mind. We’re all Scottish. He’ll never change his mind.’