A darting winger, turned forward, Cristian Ceballos was signed by Spurs when he was released by the Barcelona youth system at La Masia with the hope that he would add to his undoubted talents an application to making a difference in a game.
The 18 year old came to Tottenham with only a You Tube video of his free-styling on line to show what he was about. No doubt skilful and fit, the reason Barcelona let him go was that he had not progressed the way the Catalan club had hoped, following an injury that hindered his development.
Slightly built, he has a jinking style that can throw defenders off balance and allow him to go past them on either side, with his use of the ball being productive, with balls played through the defence or his crosses into team-mates in dangerous positions. Predominantly left-footed, Cristian has been deployed on the right to cut in and shoot on goal, but he also possesses a turn of pace that can see him accelerate past defenders and this is always a useful asset.
Ceballos has made good strides forward since he joined Spurs, playing a major role in the Under-21s group title win and an eventual defeat in the final, but also in the NextGen campaign that took Tottenham to the quarter-final in 2013.
His impressive form won him a place on the first team bench when Spurs played Everton in 2012-13 and he was in the squad for some of the first team pre-season friendlies in the following summer, but his development was adjudged to be best assisted with a loan move and he was farmed out to newly promoted FC Arouca of Portugal for the 2013-14 season.
Despite a season in the Under-21s in which he played a decent role as an attacking midfielder, Cristian was released at the end of the 2014-15 season and was snapped up by Charlton Athletic on a free transfer. With changes at boardroom and management level occurring regularly at the Valley, Cristian never got a run in the side and was shipped out to Belgium, where he was at Sint Truiden, initially on loan, before making his move permanent in July 2017.