Jose Antonio Reyes’ Father: I Hope For A Draw Between Sevilla & Arsenal

Francisco Reyes wishes both sides well…

Former Arsenal forward Jose Antonio Reyes’ father is refusing to choose between his son’s former clubs ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League tie, the Daily Mail reports.

Reyes died in 2019 following a fatal car accident at the age of 35, three years after ending his second stint at his beloved club in Andalusia.

Reyes started his career at Los Nervionenses in 2004 after graduating from their academy and announced himself as one of the hottest prospects in European football.

It led to Arsene Wenger pulling off a coup of convincing the former Spanish international to leave home and move to north London in January 2004.

It took a record fee for us to secure Reyes’ services, a record that stood for five years before we brought in Andrei Arshavin from Zenit St.Petersburg.

Reyes was an instant hit and as we closed in on another Premier League title, he was crucial to helping us over the line and making history as ‘The Invincibles’.

Now, with his two former clubs set to battle in the Champions League, Reyes’ father stated that his son loved both teams and is hoping for a draw.

“He liked everything about Arsenal,” Mr Reyes was quoted as saying.

“Apart from Sevilla, the second favourite club for us as a family and for Jose was Arsenal. The match will be a lot of feeling. We want a draw!”

The two figures steering the club on a sporting level were very close to Reyes, with Edu sharing a dressing room with him at Arsenal while Mikel Arteta roomed with the former Atletico Madrid star in their Spanish youth team days.

“Edu and (Robert) Pires used to call him “brother”, and he’d call them “brother”. Jose and Arteta used to sleep in the same room when they were away with Spain. They were like brothers, too,” Francisco added.