Jon Toral

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This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Toral and the second or maternal family name is Harper.

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Jon Toral
White man with dark hair and beard wearing sports kit
Toral with Birmingham City in April 2016
Personal information
Full name Jon-Miquel Toral Harper[1]
Date of birth (1995-02-05) 5 February 1995 (age 29)[2]
Place of birth Reus, Spain
Height Script error: No such module "person height".
Position(s) Attacking midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Arsenal
Youth career
0000–2003 Santes Creus
2003–2011 Barcelona
2011–2014 Arsenal
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2014– Arsenal 0 (0)
2014–2015 → Brentford (loan) 34 (6)
2015–2016 → Birmingham City (loan) 36 (8)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 14:35, 10 May 2016 (UTC)

Jon-Miquel Toral Harper (born 5 February 1995), commonly known as Jon Toral, is a Spanish footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for English club Arsenal. He spent the 2014–15 season on loan to Football League Championship club Brentford and the following season on loan to Birmingham City, also of the Championship. He is a product of the Barcelona and Arsenal academies.

Club career

Barcelona

Toral was born in Reus, in the Province of Tarragona, Catalonia.[3] He began playing football as a child with his local club, UE Barri Santes Creus,[4] and signed for Barcelona in 2003, after being discovered by youth football coordinator Albert Puig.[5][6] At Barcelona, Toral quickly forged a midfield partnership with Sergi Samper. The pair would play together for eight years and were referred to as the "Samper & Toral Limited Company" in the Spanish media.[7] Toral was a part of the under-15 team which won the 2009–10 Manchester United Premier Cup.[5] He departed Barça in the summer of 2011.[3]

Arsenal

Toral caught the attention of Premier League club Arsenal while playing in England at the Manchester United Premier Cup in 2010.[5] Along with Barcelona youth teammate Héctor Bellerín, he signed for the Gunners in the summer of 2011[3] for a fee reported as around £300,000; Barcelona president Sandro Rosell described the deal as "a little immoral".[8] Toral began his career at Arsenal out injured with a damaged meniscus of his right knee, suffered in his final appearance for Barcelona in May 2011.[5] After recovering, Toral made his debut for the reserves in a 2–0 Premier Reserve League defeat to Aston Villa on 30 November 2011, but was injured again in January 2012.[9] Toral appeared for Arsenal in the 2012–13 NextGen Series and the 2013–14 UEFA Youth League, scoring two goals in five appearances in the latter competition.[10] He broke into the reserve team during the 2013–14 season, scoring six goals in twenty appearances.[11] Toral was called into the first team squad for pre-season friendly matches against Boreham Wood and New York Red Bulls in July 2014, making a start and a substitute appearance respectively.[12][13] Toral spent the entire 2014–15 season away on loan and impressed sufficiently to be awarded a one-year contract extension.[14] Toral was involved in Arsenal's pre-season tour of Singapore ahead of the 2015–16 season. He came on as a substitute against Singapore Selection XI on 15 July 2015 and won the penalty from which Chuba Akpom made it 3–0.[15]

Brentford (loan)

Toral joined newly promoted Championship side Brentford on a season-long loan on 15 August 2014.[11][16] After the signing, manager Mark Warburton said Toral was "an excellent addition to our group. This is a sign of the relationship we have with Arsenal and our continuing desire to add quality to our playing squad".[11] Assigned the number 17 shirt, Toral made the first professional appearance of his career with a start in a 1–0 League Cup second-round defeat to West London rivals Fulham on 26 August; he lasted 63 minutes before being substituted by Toumani Diagouraga.[17] He made his league debut in the following game against Rotherham United,[18] coming on for goalscorer Andre Gray and assisting Nick Proschwitz for the Bees' second goal in a 2–0 win.[19] After four further substitute appearances, Warburton commented that Toral had been outstanding in training and was pushing for a first team start.[20] He scored the first senior goal of his career with what proved to be a consolation in a 3–1 defeat to Bolton Wanderers on 25 October, just two minutes after coming on as a late substitute for Alex Pritchard.[21] He scored his second goal with the opener in a 3–1 win at Nottingham Forest on Bonfire Night, shooting in the box through a crowd of players.[22] Toral said in February 2015 that Griffin Park was "a great place to be now and I'm enjoying every minute of it – every game, every training session I'm learning".[23] He scored the first senior hat-trick of his career to send the Bees on the way to a 4–0 victory over Blackpool on 24 February, and took his tally to four goals in three games in a 4–1 defeat of Huddersfield Town a week later.[24] He finished the season with 37 appearances and 6 goals, after the Bees' defeat to Middlesbrough in the playoff semi-finals.[24]

Birmingham City (loan)

File:Jon Toral Jan 2016.jpg
Toral with Birmingham City in 2016

Toral joined another Championship club, Birmingham City, on 30 July 2015 on loan for the season[25] He went straight into the starting eleven for the opening match of the season, a 2–1 win at home to Reading, and scored Birmingham's second goal with a header from Donaldson's cross.[26] The following week, he opened the scoring after 10 minutes of the visit to Burnley with a left-footed shot from outside the penalty area after Donaldson flicked on a clearance from the goalkeeper; the match ended 2–2.[27] In September, he created one goal for Donaldson with an "astute through ball catching [Bristol City]'s defence napping",[28] and another via a penalty awarded for a foul on Toral for which the Bristol City manager thought he should have been booked for diving.[29] Regular starts were taking their toll: Toral was rested for the win at Brentford at the end of the month[30] and made four substitute appearances in the next six matches.[31]

He returned to the starting eleven and to goalscoring in the 5–2 away win at Fulham on 7 November, when manager Gary Rowett described him as "the best player on the pitch, in terms of his composure and his vision."[32] From then on, he kept his place in the starting eleven, despite competition from January purchase Diego Fabbrini for the playmaker role,[33] until his season ended prematurely. He was sent off in stoppage time of the home defeat against Burnley on 16 April for a second yellow card,[34] and then injured a hamstring in training that was to keep him out for the last four matches of the season. He was second to Donaldson over the season with eight goals. The sixth – "Tomasz Kuszczak launched a free kick down the middle, Clayton Donaldson headed on and before the ball hit the ground Toral fired a dipping volley over the goalkeeper from 25 yards" to increase Birmingham's lead at home to Ipswich Town in January[35] – earned him the club's Goal of the Season award, to add to both the Players' and Supporters' Player of the Season awards.[36]

International career

Toral was called up to the Spain U17 squad for a friendly versus Italy on 25 January 2012, but was an unused substitute in the 5–1 win.[citation needed] He has also been called up at under-19 level.[1][37] He is also eligible to represent England through his mother.[37]

Personal life

Toral has an English mother and has spoken English since early childhood.[37]

Career statistics

As of match played 7 May 2016
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Europe Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Arsenal 2014–15[24] Premier League 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Brentford (loan) 2014–15[24] Championship 34 6 1 0 1 0 — 1[lower-alpha 1] 0 37 6
Birmingham City (loan) 2015–16[38] Championship 36 8 1 0 1 0 — — 38 8
Career total 70 14 2 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 75 14
  1. ↑ Appearance in Football League play-offs

Honours

Club

Barcelona youth

Individual

Birmingham City[36]
  • Supporters' Player of the Season: 2015–16
  • Players' Player of the Season: 2015–16
  • Goal of the Season: 2015–16 (23 January 2016 vs. Ipswich Town)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 24.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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