Can Aragones leave this genius out?

Emmet Maloneprofiles a young player who has transformed Spain's fortunes in Euro 2008, but is still not guaranteed a first-team place.

IN ARENYS de Mar, the small Catalan coastal town whose most famous son is Cesc Fabregas, the new year celebrations end each January with a turnip festival during which it's traditional for locals to leave one of the vegetables outside the window of those they desire.

The Spanish midfielder's parents, Francesc senior and Nurea, still live there and since he left five years ago not much has changed in a town where the locals tend to live and breathe Barcelona football.

The 21-year-old has matured beyond all recognition in that time, however, and his potentially central involvement in tomorrow's European Championship final against Germany should assuage any lingering reservations his former neighbours might have had about Spain's prospects in Vienna.

The player's place in Luis Aragones' starting line-up is far from assured. The Spaniards arrive at the final unbeaten and the system that has served them rather well over the past four matches will most likely have to be changed if Fabregas is to be accommodated. With top scorer David Villa almost certainly out through injury, though, and the Arsenal player having shone after replacing the striker on Thursday, it looks a greater gamble to omit him at this stage than to hand him a starring role.

If he is picked, Fabregas certainly seems unlikely to be overawed by the responsibility. Despite having turned 21 a few weeks back, he observed recently he has already played in no fewer than seven finals. There have been a couple of wins but the biggest of the lot, the Champions League meeting with his former club Barcelona in Paris two years ago, was lost. "So I know what it is to lose a big final and I don't want to do it again," he says now.

A product of La Masia, Barcelona's famous "farmhouse" of young talent, Fabregas captured the attention of the wider football community in 2003 when he was both top scorer and player of the tournament at the Under-17 World Cup in Finland.

Spain were beaten in the final by Brazil but the slightly built attacking midfielder found the leading clubs beating a path to the door of his family home. Many offered far more money than Barca, who perhaps took his talent a little for granted, but Arsene Wenger also promised a clear path to first-team football at a time when his prospects at the Nou Camp looked decidedly limited and the teenager decided to place his faith in the Frenchman.

By the end of the summer, Fabregas was sharing digs with Philippe Senderos in a house owned by an Irish woman with whom the pair still keep in touch. Slightly older, Jose Antonio Reyes arrived in London around the same time, bringing his family along with him so that he could speak Spanish at home and live on his mother's cooking.

Fabregas, on the other hand, threw himself into his new life, travelling around on the tube, learning English quickly and even taking an A level in the subject. On the pitch his application was every bit as impressive. Not long after arriving he became, at 16 years and 177 days, the youngest player to feature in Arsenal's first team when they played Rotherham in the League Cup. A couple of rounds later he became the youngest to score for the club, celebrating afterwards with coke - the bottled black liquid variety - and a chocolate Kinder Egg.

During the club's next campaign he benefited from injuries to established stars, with Wenger throwing him in ahead of better-known alternatives for the first time as Patrick Vieira's replacement against Everton on the opening day of the 2004/05 season.

"I thought 'such a young boy against (Thomas) Gravesen'," recalled Wenger afterwards, "but he showed he could cope. He has never been inhibited at the top level. That's very important to be successful and marks out special players."

His progress since has been remarkable, with the youngster taking over as Arsenal's key midfielder in the wake of Vieira's departure to Italy, then as their most important player when Thierry Henry was allowed to move to Spain. In each instance, Fabregas' development into a figure who could dictate games from midfield appears to have been critical to his manager's decision to allow ostensibly bigger stars to depart.

Inevitably, as they may do again very soon, his performances attracted interest from back in Spain, with that most active of innocent bystanders, club president Ramon Calderon, phoning in person to express Real Madrid's desire to sign him. Partly out of loyalty to Wenger, though, he signed a new eight-year deal with Arsenal and though these things are a little symbolic in an era when players can leave clubs with little option but to sell them, his continuing affection for life at the Emirates Stadium and, in particular, his coach there, seems genuine enough.

His form at Arsenal two years ago also earned him a call-up to Luis Aragones' squad during the build-up to the 2006 World Cup and when he made his debut before the tournament in a friendly against the Ivory Coast, he was the youngest player to be capped by his country in almost 70 years.

In Germany, just like here, he started the early games on the bench but made the team for the latter two, the first because more established squad members were rested, the second-round game against France, because he had done enough to merit selection.

In the wake of his displays over the past couple of weeks, it's hard to see how the same isn't true ahead of tomorrow's meeting with Germany. Having come on four times and started against Greece, he has consistently improved the team with his wonderful range of passing and tireless work. Throw in the goal against Russia first time around, those created for others on Thursday and the winning penalty in the shoot-out against Italy and he has, in short, had quite a tournament.

Still, he insists, he will accept Aragones' decision without rancour if he is left out of tomorrow's starting line-up. "I have always said from the first day of the tournament I want to contribute positive things to the team," he says. "I don't want to rest. It is better for me that I play but if I don't, then I have to wait for my opportunity."

And if he does start then, "I will try to do exactly the same as I have done when playing as a substitute - to do positive things for the team".

If he were picking the team, it seems certain Wenger would select his protégé, with the Frenchman clearly believing the player's youth should not be seen as a deterrent. "Being ready early is an important ingredient of talent. Mozart played the piano at six years old better than I ever will play."

When he wakes up in the city so closely associated with the great composer tomorrow morning, Fabregas will discover if Aragones shares his club manager's faith. The news is unlikely to come by way of a nocturnally delivered turnip but after his latest show- stealing performance, the chances are the veteran coach will have been won over by the young midfielder's charms.