Antonito Cordero: Why Newcastle took on Real Madrid & Barcelona to land Malaga's teenage promotion-hero-turned-contract-rebel

Cordero was born in Jerez de la Frontera near Cadiz in the south of Spain in November 2006. He has spent his entire career to date in Andalusia, starting out at local side Jerez Alternativa at the age of six before hopping around some of the region's biggest clubs.

That included spells with the likes of La Liga stalwarts Sevilla and Real Betis, but the winger eventually settled at second-tier Malaga in 2021 - the club he supported growing up - despite their infamous fall from grace.

Three days after his 16th birthday in November 2022, Antonito was handed his first professional contract to keep him with Los Boquerones until 2025 - the same deal he is yet to renew as some of European football's big hitters circle.

Cordero was so highly regarded in the academy that he was handed his first-team debut before he had even made an appearance for Malaga's reserve side, Atletico Malagueno. He became the fourth-youngest player in the club's history when he came off the bench in a 2-1 victory over Atletico Madrid's B team in early September 2023, aged 16 years, nine months and 17 days.

His first senior goals would soon follow as he bagged a brace for Atletico Malagueno, as would a call-up to Spain's Under-18 squad, and he would go between the reserves and the first team for the remainder of the 2023-24 campaign - scoring 12 times for the former - as Malaga pushed for promotion from the third tier. Ultimately, it was Antonito who would send the club up as he delivered in the crucial moment.

Malaga reached the promotion play-off final and established a 2-1 first-leg lead over Gimnastic Tarragona at home before being pegged back in the return game, as Gimnastic secured a 1-0 win to force extra-time. The sides scored a goal each in the additional period as the tie seemed destined for penalties, but - having been thrown on as a 100th-minute substitute - Cordero had the last say as the 17-year-old popped up in stoppage time to bundle the ball over the line and win it. Some way to bag your first goal for the first team!

"I've been dreaming about this for a long time, and what better way to do it than to score the promotion goal," he said amid the euphoric celebrations. "It was inexplicable, really. This is Malaga; no team-mate here gives up. Our fans deserved us to take Malaga to the Segunda Division."

It's fair to say Antonito had earned the right to become a fully-fledged member of Malaga's first team ahead of 2024-25, and he made a flying start to life in La Liga 2. He scored off the bench in the opening-day draw with Racing Ferrol before going on to provide a further six goal contributions in the first six games of the league season as Los Boquerones remained unbeaten. That form earned him a promotion to Spain's U19s before his 18th birthday.

However, Cordero's contributions largely dried up thereafter other than another flurry around Christmas, as his season unfolded against the backdrop of a contract standoff with the club after he switched representatives to super-agent Zahavi, who supposedly set about trying to find him a new club ahead of his deal expiring in the summer.

The winger reportedly rejected multiple offers that would have made him one of the Malaga's highest-paid players, with the rest of the squad irked by that revelation as their form took a turn for the worse at the turn of the year. Cordero has struggled to hold down a starting place in 2025, perhaps as a result of the impasse.

That being said, Antonito still has five league goals and seven assists to his name at the time of writing, which is not to be sniffed at given his tender age.

At 18, Cordero still has plenty of growing to do, but he already boasts the upper-body strength to hold off far more experienced opponents. In that sense, he is not your typical, diminutive Spanish winger, but he does still possess a catalogue of skills and searing pace to beat his man.

Indeed, Antonito is very comfortable with the ball at his feet as a direct runner; in the first half of the season, he ranked in the 89th percentile for progressive carries and 90th percentile for carries into the box, per Total Football Analysis.

Predominantly a right-footed left-winger, Cordero also has the versatility to drift centrally, play as an attacking midfielder or switch flanks to the right, where he is just as dangerous as a touchline-hugging wide player. He backs himself, too, with the confidence to try long-range shots, attempt to beat his man and throw the odd trick.

As we've touched upon, consistency has been a problem for Cordero in his first full season as a first-team player, and it seems he has been unable to drown out the noise surrounding his future and focus on matters on the pitch. Spanish outlet Cadena Ser wrote earlier in April: "His performance has declined in recent months."

You can hardly blame him for being distracted by the furore that his contract situation as created, especially at his young age, but the players who go to the very top are able to compartmentalise and continue to perform when their name is in the headlines for other reasons.

Malaga coach Sergio Pellicer said in February: "Do I want it resolved? Yes, I'm the first. I want to know now, the sooner the better."

Aside from that, the teenager is a little rough around the edges and, inevitably as an attacking player, his defensive contributions have occasionally been called into question - but once he is able to focus solely on his football again, Antonito's game should develop organically.

There aren't necessarily many established stars you could compare Cordero with directly, but Chelsea's flying wide man Pedro Neto arguably shares some of the young Spaniard's best traits.

Both players are direct wingers who can play on either flank and possess the strength to match some of the most physical full-back's around, as well as the pace to escape them. In terms of weaknesses, Neto is certainly someone who has struggled for consistency at times, although he has been one of Chelsea's more impressive performers in 2024-25.

Malaga wanted a resolution to Antonito's contract standoff, and it seems they've finally got one - but it's certainly not the outcome they would have been hoping for: Cordero is set to walk away from the club for nothing, ending what the Spanish media has described as a 'soap opera'.

Despite interest from Spanish giants Barca and Madrid, it is Premier League side Newcastle who have seen off stiff competition to land the 18-year-old's signature with a five-year contract offer that supposedly blew Malaga's out of the water. That includes a lucrative signing bonus and allegedly a boot deal with adidas, whom he recently joined from Nike.

Cordero is said to have been enticed by the prospect of becoming a first-team player quickly on Tyneside, which wouldn't have been the case in Catalunya or the Spanish capital. The Magpies' plan is reportedly to send him on an initial loan to Ajax, which appeals to the winger too - although he could yet be kept at St. James' Park.

All that's left is an announcement. Asked about the deal recently, Pellicer was coy, saying: "I’m not going to talk about the individual. I’ve spoken to him and he’s 100 percent [committed]. Everything else is beyond me."

Antonito's imminent exit for absolutely nothing has soured his relationship with the club and it's fans, who have accused him of a cash grab. He now faces a potentially hostile end to his Malaga career before moving to pastures new.