Article by Aurelian Botezatu – Published on Tuesday, 02 December 2025, 08:32 / Updated on Tuesday, 02 December 2025 08:34
Andrei Rațiu was an integral player at Rayo, in the duel with Valencia, which ended 1-1, but his evolution was seen differently by the great Iberian daily newspapers.
Now involved on several fronts, after qualification in the Conference League, Rayo no longer manages to always live up to the developments of last season. And neither Andrei Rațiu.
Andrei Rațiu wasted the opportunity of a victory after Valencia's goal
After 1-2 with Slovan Bratislava, on Thursday, in Europe, Rațiu and his teammates managed only a draw, on Monday evening, against Valencia, in the last match of the stage with number 14.
Rațiu had his team's best chance after Lopez equalized for the visitors (64), but he fired into the side netting from a promising position. His figures throughout the 90 minutes:
- 81 touches of the balloon
- 35 passes were accurate out of a total of 42
- 2 interceptions
- 8 successful defense clearances
- 2 shots, one blocked
- 2 recoveries
- 4 ground duels won out of 9
- 1 air duel won out of 3 held
The daily Mundo Deportivo did not rate Andrei Rațiu!
As for the grades given for its evolution, Spanish journalists did not agree. Marca newspaper gave him only one star (weak), while the highest rating of the match was 2 stars.
The other newspaper that appears in Madrid, AS, was more generous with the Romanian international. He scored with 2 aces (good), which was also the highest qualifier of the game.
Finally, Mundo Deportivo surprised even more. He left him without a grade, just like players who performed too little to be evaluated or who were involved in a reprehensible incident. Which seems, rather, to be a graphic error, since the tricolor did not even take any “yellow”.
Andrei Rațiu extended until 2030 with Rayo
Recently, Andrei Rațiu extended his contract with Rayo until 2030. The decision came after months in which the international press wrote about a possible transfer of the Romanian.
Barcelona, Atletico, Aston Villa and Bayer Leverkusen were among the clubs interested in his services, but they felt that his club's asking price of €25 million was too high.
Quoted at 12 million euros on the specialist website transfermarkt.de, Rațiu also played for Villarreal, ADO Den Haag and Huesca before signing with Rayo Vallecano in 2023.
