Villarreal inks cooperation agreement with Uruguayan club

Villarreal has made a number of forays into South America before, but this looks as though it could be an interesting tieup.  The Yellow Submarine has reached a cooperation agreement with Uruguayan side Plaza Colonia; their representatives Carlos Manta and "Chiqui" Garcia were in Vila-real last week negotiating the details. Apparently Villarreal will provide some sort of unspecified infrastructure support in return for getting first priority in signing any Colonia players to deals.

This is a bit reminiscent of the tieup Villarreal had with Argentina's River Plate, which ended in a good deal of acrimony and a dispute that was eventually settled out of court.  (we got Mateo Musacchio as part of that arrangement).

However, there are some important differences that should make this more workable, though potentially less important.  As opposed to River, arguably South America's most famous club, Plaza Colonia is a much different proposition.  First, they're in Uruguay, but are not one of the top clubs or more famous clubs--those distinctions belong to clubs from Montevideo like Peñarol or Nacional.

Colonia (Colonia del Sacramento), where the club is based, is a historic town, but even smaller than Vila-real.  And while I haven't been able to find out much about their history, they certainly don't have tons of trophies or anything.  So I suspect this could be an agreement that stats away from the courts.

Do Colonia have players Villarreal might want?  Two, apparently; Guillermo Padula is a young (18 year-old)  centerback, player for Uruguay's under-20 international squad, who is coming to Vila-real in December for a trial, though according to one report he will head back to Uruguay for the second half of their season regardless.  I am a bit confused by this since contrary to reports he won't turn 18 until February, all the soccer websites show his birthday as September 16, 1997.  At any rate, we'll see how he performs.

The other is a 21-year old striker, Nicolas Dibble. Like Padula, he's a native of Colonia del Sacramento who came up through Colonia's youth program.