The Pride of Vallekas

On the 12th of April, 2010, following Sergije Krešić's dismissal, with the club languishing in 17th, Las Palmas turned to a former Las Palmas native to rescue them from relegation to the Segunda B. In the 32 games prior to Sergije being sacked, Las Palmas had won just eight times and picked up 37 points. Under Paco Jémez, in 10 games, they won four times, and picked up 14 points, to finish in 17th - narrowly outside the relegation zone. And while he was dismissed in February 2011, Las Palmas saw the need to sign the players that actually breathed the values of the club. And so they did. Jerónimo Figueroa, aka Momo , belonged to Las Palmas. He grew up at the club, and broke out during the 2003-04 season at the age of just 21. Despite Las Palmas' relegation, Momo desired to stay - but in 2004 Deportivo signed the player due to an existing agreement between both clubs to settle the debt of the 2000 signing of Argentine center-back Gabriel Schürrer. However, Momo rarely pla...

Once again, smetimes a blog entry becomes less about the subject matter and how it came about. This blog post was supposed to be titled D is for Deportivo Alavés. However, most people would only call it Alavés, and I felt like that was cheating. By sheer coincidence, the first player I wrote about was David Aganzo. Disaster averted? David Aganzo was one of many players who directly confronted Martín Presa in 2011. He had not been paid for fourteen months, Rayo had just returned to La Liga, and he was being offered 70% less than promised. He was blunt in his interviews, angry with his situation and left Vallekas, but his sporting achievements must not be overlooked. His physical problems and excessive temperament plagued him at Rayo but he still managed to score more goals per 90 minutes, and sometimes more goals overall, than any other player. In fact, out of 114 league games, he was eligible for just 64, with 50 games lost due to injuries and suspensions. A Real Madr...

This blog is all about the stories that we ignore or pay lip service to, but don't genuinely appreciate. And, in that spirit, this post, and then some, are about the stereotypical tough-tackling, all-action defensive midfielder. The player who, despite not being blessed with notable technical skills, possesses pace, strength, and work-rate to complement and support other midfielders with a more composed, creative playing style. The player who stands out most for energy, aggression, and a hard-tackling style of play, but is often not talked about for the qualities that reside beneath those ball-winning abilities. A competitive nature. Leadership qualities. Endurance. And so these next posts are about that defensive midfielder. Oh wait, I should correct the record - not about a defensive midfielder. No, it's about three of them. Three defensive midfielders whose careers are, weirdly, connected to each other. Their names? Sergio Matabuena. Javi Fuego. And Raúl Baena. ...

Every time I look at my drafts folder I feel a sense of failure. Those are ideas that I've started but never finished. Articles for this blog for which I've pounded at a keyboard and then hit a brick wall and stopped. No, I didn't finish it. No, I didn't stop - I failed. I keep thinking that I failed. I started a piece on Movilla a few days back ( here )  but never finished it. Then, and at other times, thoughts of failure bleed into this blog. Today, I finished it. It's not perfect by any means, and certainly doesn't completely cover his career. But it's one less draft in my draft folder. One more article finished and scheduled. One more failure turned into a success. Last time, I asked: "where do I even start"? I really should have seen it.  I started at the very start. It's almost poetic that one of the most successful careers in Spanish professional football starts with a series of failures. José María Movilla was born i...