Blue thunder through the hills of Oviedo
At 40, Santi Cazorla returned to his boyhood club, a club that several close shaves with bankruptcy, and lead it back to the top tier of Spanish football.
After two decades in the wilderness between the Segunda División and the deeper depths of Spanish football, Real Oviedo have finally made their return to La Liga for the first time since 2001. They did it the hard way, through the Segunda División playoffs, overcoming Almeria and then Mirandés in a pair of tight, emotionally-draining ties. But it was more than just promotion. It felt like the closing of a long-open wound.
At the heart of it all stood a 40-year-old with several surgically repaired body parts and a grin as wide as the Picos de Euro - Santi Cazorla.
There’s no Real Oviedo fairytale without Cazorla, a figure uniting that early 2000s downfall and the culmination of their long road back to the top. A product of the Oviedo academy, Cazorla left in the early 2000s as the club descended into financial ruin and rapidly dropped into Spain’s third tier. He went on to win European Championships with his country, lift FA Cups, and dazzle and be adored by all football fans, most fondly by the supporters of Villarreal, Málaga, Arsenal.
Both throughout his time in La Liga and his stint in the Premier League, Cazorla was respected by everyone who appreciated great football. Known for his remarkable ability with both feet, Cazorla’s mesmeric dribbling, shooting from distance and propensity to set the tempo and dictate play in midfield meant he was one of the most enjoyable players to watch for nearly two decades.
Sadly, injured curtailed much of that career. His time at Arsenal, where he won two FA Cups, was cut short due to a particularly nasty Achilles tendon injury that eventually contracted gangrene and required a skin graft, with fears that he’d struggle to walk again, let alone play football at any high level. Arsene Wenger had described it as the worst injury he had ever seen.
In an interview with Sid Lowe in 2018 he described the severity of the injury.
“I picked it up in the operating theatre and then there was the fact that the wound was open. I’d work on the bike and a couple of stitches would come out. Because it was an open wound, bacteria can enter, so another bug gets in. At night, a yellow liquid would come out. Every time they sewed me up, it split again; more liquid.”
But he’d make it back. Although his Arsenal career ended prematurely, he’d return to Villarreal, where he excelled earlier in his career, for two more outstanding seasons managing 70 league games, before setting off for a slightly more relaxing stint in Qatar. But even there he would play nearly 100 games for Al Sadd.
But ultimately, his sense was that a part of him still belonged back home, in the rugged Asturias region of northwestern Spain. So when he returned to Real Oviedo in 2023 it was more than a simple romantic gesture. It was unfinished business. He said so himself.
And while he may have lacked the legs of his peak years, he brought something far more valuable to the club: calm, class, and conviction. In tight playoff moments, when legs cramp and minds race, it helps to have a footballing genius who can still see two moves ahead and a passion and determination to carry the club back to the promised land.
To understand the scale of this achievement you’d have to go back to where Oviedo have come from. In 2003, they were relegated to the third tier. By 2004, they dropped even further into the Tercera División, the fourth tier of Spanish football. The club was bankrupt. The lights nearly went out.
But the fans refused to let it happen.
Thousands of small shareholders, many of them ordinary locals, and many generous football fanatics scattered around the world, invested into the club to keep it alive. In 2012, a global share campaign was launched. 36,962 shareholders in 86 countries. One notable buyer? A young Santi Cazorla, then playing for Málaga, joined with Juan Mata and Michu as former players who helped keep the club afloat.
Fast forward to today and Oviedo are back, owned by the ambitious Grupo Pachuca from Mexico, but still rooted in the community. It's a club that's spent the last decade quietly rebuilding, not just its squad, but its soul, solidifying itself in the second tier before seeing the return of the local legend to help finish the job. Taking a 2-1 lead into the playoff second leg against Almeria, a second half strike from Cazorla clinched the tie in the return leg.
In the final, taking a one-nil deficit from the first leg, Cazorla, in front of his home support, triggered a remarkable comeback having conceded 15 minutes into the first half. From the spot, he kickstarted the turnaround which eventually took Oviedo into extra-time, where another aging Spaniard, Francisco Portillo, scored the winner in the 103rd minute.
The Carlos Tartiere had turned into a pressure cooker. Blue flares dominated the sky, flags waved, roars rolled like thunder through the Asturias hills. The final whistle brought chaos with fans pouring onto the pitch, tears flowing, players launched into the air. Cazorla, wrapped in blue and white, was mobbed by teammates. It looked, and felt, like a club reborn.
Oviedo’s promotion isn’t just a story about tactics or transfers. It’s about time. It’s a tonic against the elitist and sterile nature of modern football. A proud club coming out of a long exile into a different world of Spanish football where they are an international powerhouse, a path paved by players like Santi Cazorla.
“At 40, I think this is the greatest thing I’ve ever experienced,” Cazorla said after the game. “I’ve been lucky enough to experience great things with Spain and with the clubs that I’ve been with, winning many trophies — but nothing compares to this.”
This return brings with it not just financial opportunity, but emotional closure. For a generation of fans, it’s their first taste of the top flight. For the older ones, it’s a rekindling of something they feared was lost forever. For the many thousands of football lovers scattered across the world who dipped into their pockets in 2012 to help save the club, it’s a moment to cherish.
Every so often, football gives us a reminder of the power of community, its ability to unite and gives us a reason to care about such a silly little game. Why we endure the years of mediocrity, the missed chances, the near-bankruptcies and often torturous away days. Because once in a while, your club comes back from the dead. Once in a while, the local hero returns.
Once in a while, you get a night like Real Oviedo just had.