Santi Cazorla

The Spanish magician returns to his hometown club to finally fulfil a lifetime ambition

- Sid Lowe

“This is the dream I had when I was a child,” Santi Cazorla said. Now 38, the former Arsenal midfielder has played 768 professional games across three countries, spent a decade in the national team, won (and scored) at Wembley in the FA Cup final, and was twice a European champion with that Spain team. He came back from the injury that might have not just cost him his career but his leg, returning two years after doctors told him he should have settled for being able to walk round the garden, but there was one thing he hadn’t done and he wasn’t going to retire until he did.

“I have dreamed many times of making my debut for Real Oviedo. It’s an image that goes through your mind a lot,” Cazorla said. Now, at last, it will be a reality; he will play for his local club, the club he supports and the one he joined 30 years ago but where he never reached the first team. Never mind that they’re in the second division – bottom, in fact, at the time of writing – and haven’t been in the top flight for 22 years, he was determined to go home, for his son Enzo to see him play in blue. He had come for one reason, he said: “sentiment.”