Fran Merida, a young Catalonian midfielder born in Barcelona, a product of the Barcelona youth academy since the age of eight and drilled heavily on the "Spanish way" was always destined to play for a club like Arsenal and after attracting interest from a young age from Real Madrid and AC Milan, Merida would join the North-London club in the summer of 2007.
However, it would be a move for the Spaniard which would prove controversial.
Barcelona have always heavily guarded their youth academy prospects and with good reason. With players like Iniesta, Xavi, Puyol aswell as many others coming from their academy and with Arsenal already poaching Cesc Fabregas back in 2003, there was always some unfinished business regarding the two clubs.
Barcelona protested the Fran Merida signing and the player was forced to pay around 3.2million euros to Barcelona as compensation for "failing to meet the terms of a personal pre-contract"
Possibly plagued by the controversy surrounding his move to Arsenal, Merida found chances in the first team few and far between having made just a handfull of appearances over a three year spell at the club.
This didn't stop the Spaniard signing up to a long-term deal in 2008, but again he would find competition in the Arsenal midfield too strong to overcome and would later sign for Spanish side Atletico Madrid in 2010 after refusing a contract extension at Arsenal.
Life back in Spain started well for Merida and he soon settled quickly back in his home nation, however the attacking midfielder would again find it hard to break into the first team, making just 20 appearances in two seasons and was ultimately loaned out to Portuguese side Braga in late December 2011.
Merida would again struggle to gain game time at the club and played just 130 minutes of football during the entire loan spell.
With the best part of five years of his dissapointing career spent out on loan or occupying the substitution bench, Merida was growing incresingly frustrated at the lack of first team opportunities being offered to him. This potential was the driving point behind his step-down in terms of club reputation when he signed for second tier Spanish Segunda division side Hercules CF.
Merida recieved the first team opportunities he had been craving for so long and quickly established himself as a regular starter in the Hercules CF starting eleven, and in February of last year signed for Brazilian first division side Atletico Paranaense.
Having gone from being labelled the next Cesc Fabregas to struggling to hold a place in average sides across Europe and South America, Fran Merida's fall from the top of English football has been a harsh one, a player who had so much potential to offer coming from the glittering youth academy at Barcelona was never given the time to prove his talents and establish himself as a household name.