Marseille head coach Igor Tudor believes that Nuno Tavares is capable of playing for Barcelona or Real Madrid after working with the Arsenal loanee this season.
Tavares, 23, joined the French giants on a season-long deal last summer after falling out of favour at the Emirates just 12 months after moving to London from Benfica in an £7million deal.
The Portuguese international endured a difficult maiden campaign in the Premier League but has made a major impression on the other side of the channel, netting six goals in 24 Ligue 1 appearances. And his current boss, Tudor, is adamant that Tavares is good enough to play for one of Europe's elite clubs in the future if he keeps improving.
Tudor said of Tavares: "He is a boy who is still young. He has high level physical qualities. He has extraordinary explosiveness; he could play at Real Madrid, Barcelona or Manchester City.
"There are other things he needs to improve. He must progress, we often talk. There’s always room for improvement, we’re here to help. We make him see concrete things to improve.
"He has always been important to us even if he has not had continuity. He is still participating, he is an important player for us. As I always say, we hope he will help us in the last ten games. He is a player who, when he is in good shape, can change things. He can make a difference."
Intriguingly, Tudor didn't bring up the possibility of Tavares starring for Arsenal again - although the path to a first-team spot at the Emirates has been made somewhat more difficult by the arrival of Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has quickly become one the Gunners' most influential players.
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Tavares, who has been deployed in a more advanced role on the left flank for Marseille this season, has already admitted that he would have liked a permanent option to have been included in the temporary deal that took him to France, but that Arsenal refused to agree to such terms.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta had called on Tavares to "embrace" the challenge of dislodging former first-choice left-back Kieran Tierney before the youngster's departure - but Tavares ignored the Spaniard's request and instead opted to look for regular football elsewhere.
"Throughout your career, you have to go through really difficult moments," Arteta said last year. "He [Tavares] had some really good periods when he arrived at the club and was playing many more minutes than he was probably expecting."
He continued: "He needs the rhythm, the competition and the understanding with his teammates. We have to help him to achieve this but during a game, you have to decide if something can change the game to make things better."
