Despite two Euros titles: club legend lives his biggest dream at 40 | OneFootball

With Real Oviedo, the third and final team to be promoted to LaLiga was confirmed late Saturday evening. For the Asturians, this marks the end of a decades-long absence from Spain’s top division. They were led by an unparalleled club icon, who thus fulfilled his greatest dream. A story so beautiful, only real life could write it.

"It’s the most important game of my career," assured Santi Cazorla before yesterday’s showdown against CD Mirandés. Just to recall: the Spaniard became European champion twice, in 2008 and 2012, and at 40 years old, he’s not exactly prone to youthful arrogance. Quite the opposite: Cazorla is 1.68 meters of stacked humility.

When the playmaker was coming up through Real Oviedo’s youth academy around the turn of the millennium, the first team was relegated to the second division in the summer of 2001. The rising star was thus drawn out into the wider world of football. Especially at Villarreal and Arsenal, Cazorla made a name for himself over the years.

📸 JOSE JORDAN - 2005 AFP

He also nearly fell victim to a chronic ankle injury at the Gunners. Due to an infection, complications became so severe that doctors at one point feared they would have to amputate his right leg. Perhaps he would never walk without pain again—let alone play football.

But Cazorla fought his way back onto the pitch after eleven surgeries and 619 days, adapting his game. Originally more of a right-footer, he now delivers his pinpoint through balls and deadly set pieces increasingly with his left. And from summer 2023, once again for his boyhood club, Real Oviedo.

His wife sent him off with a clear mission: "You’re not going there to earn money, but to have fun, to give, and to help." He was supposed to help finally bring the club back to the first division. The problem: Oviedo’s coffers are empty. The good news: Cazorla doesn’t want any money. The catch? "I would play for free, but that’s not allowed," the returnee explained the legal dilemma.

He reluctantly accepts the minimum salary of 91,000 euros per year, and has it written into his contract that ten percent of the jersey sales with his name go to the youth academy.

Two years later, the football fairy tale reaches its true climax. Playoff semi-final for promotion. The score is 0:1 between Real Oviedo and UD Almería. It’s the 49th minute, Cazorla has only just come on at halftime. Then the magician steps up for a free kick in front of the home crowd—with his left—and curls the ball into the net for a 1:1 final score. That’s enough to reach the final, as the first leg was won 2:1.

In the final, Cazorla and the whole club step it up another notch. The first leg is lost 0:1 without their injured leader. In the return leg, after 16 minutes, the aggregate score is 0:2. But once again, it’s Cazorla who wakes up his team. His confidently converted penalty in the 39th minute sparks a comeback, which turns into a thriller with the equalizer in the 52nd minute.

Because until the end of regular time, no more goals are scored. Still weakened by his knee injury, Cazorla is substituted in the 72nd minute. But he manages one last sprint in extra time. Teammate Francisco Portillo scores the promotion-winning goal in the 103rd minute, which is confirmed about twenty minutes later.

After 24 years, Real Oviedo returns to Spain’s top division. For Cazorla, it’s the fulfillment of his greatest dream. "Getting promoted with Oviedo would be the perfect ending to my career; these people here deserve it," he said before the match. For him, it’s equivalent to winning his first European Championship. His words round off a football romance that would have been rejected by any screenwriter. But luckily, real life exists—and Santi Cazorla.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 RAFA RIVAS - 2008 AFP