Xavi Quintillà joins Norwich on loan

Villarreal’s left-back logjam has one less player today—Xavi Quintillà has moved to Norwich City on loan. This move had been expected given that all indications are Jaume Costa will remain with Villarreal this year.

Quintillà, a native of Lleida, joined Barcelona’s youth system in 2009 and Villarreal picked him up from Barcelona B on a free transfer in September 2017. He played one full season for our B team, and spent 2018-19 shuttling between the two clubs. He was definitely promoted to our first team in September 2019, and saw action in 19 matches, playing over 1500 minutes and picking up two assists and six yellow cards.

Overall, he’s played 52 matches for our B team and 32 for the first team, including 19 last season. Xavi has impressed going forward, but has been outmuscled sometimes in one-on-ones, and with Jaume Costa and Alberto Moreno both available, he just wasn’t going to get enough playing time to continue improving. Regular playing time with Norwich should help him a lot and give him more experience in physical challenges; we saw Alfonso Pedraza benefit from his loan to Leeds when they were in the Championship.

This deal is structured similarly to how Pedraza’s was, too. Norwich were relegated to the English Championship at the end of last season, and while no numbers have been made public, we do know the deal has a purchase option, which becomes mandatory if Norwich are promoted to the EPL at the end of this season. (I’m actually not sure how long Quintillà’s contract with Villarreal is; reference sources say 2021, but probably he extended it a year as part of this deal, I’d think).

We wish him well, and since the “Canaries” also play in yellow, he should be able to slide right in, yeah? Bona sort, Xavi! We hope to see you in our yellow again though....!