One Arsenal legend just can’t escape the headlines in England, despite leaving the Premier League seven years ago.
When you think of the Arsenal icons unearthed during Arsene Wenger’s reign, the natural reaction is to think of members of the Invincibles squad.
The most glorious moments of Wenger’s tenure came at Highbury, which understandably forces focus away from the Emirates when it comes to discussing those who left a legacy.
Recently, however, a true icon of the Emirates era made the headlines, as after leaving Arsenal in 2018, Santi Cazorla achieved something quite remarkable at the age of 40.
Gary Lineker applauds Santi Cazorla’s triumph
In what might have been his last game for the club, Cazorla helped Real Oviedo secure promotion to La Liga for the first time in 24 years.
The Spaniard scored from the spot in the play-off final to help Oviedo on their way to a 3-2 aggregate win, seeing unbelievable scenes unfold.
Cazorla was the hero, and it’s fair to say that very few deserved it more than him, as pundit Gary Lineker stressed when discussing the history-making game on The Rest Is Football podcast.
Before rounding the show off, Lineker took the time to give a ‘shoutout’ to Cazorla, setting the scene of what happened in the playoff final.
“[It was] a fairytale return for him, he came back and just wanted to help the club, he didn’t want to play for any money, but because of the rules, he had to be paid, so he’s basically on a minimum wage and the scenes at the end were glorious.”
Lineker spoke incredibly highly of the former Arsenal midfielder, acknowledging the hardships the 40-year-old endured to send his boyhood club back to the Spanish top flight.
“At one point in his Arsenal career, he was told he would never likely play again through a horrendous Achilles injury,” the pundit said.
When seeing the smile on Cazorla’s face as he was lifted into the air by his teammates, it’s so easy to forget that the player had missed just under two years of his career to injury.
Arsene Wenger was horrified by Cazorla’s injury
Lineker couldn’t not mention Cazorla’s injury when lauding the midfielder’s heroics at Oviedo.
Being a player of 40 years old and still playing at the level he is is quite remarkable, given that the Spaniard was told by doctors that he’d be lucky to even walk again.
“If you manage to walk with your son again in the garden, be satisfied, they told me,” Cazorla told Marca.
After sustaining an injury in 2016, Cazorla developed a serious infection, which resulted in him having to have a skin graft, losing eight centimetres of his Achilles tendon.
Having managed Arsenal for 22 years, Wenger saw his fair share of terrible injuries, including Eduardo and Aaron Ramsey’s haunting double leg fractures, but the Frenchman insisted Cazorla’s was the ‘worst’.
“It is the worst injury [I have known],” Wenger told the media in 2017.
“It started with a pain in the Achilles and it has gone from worse to worse, and I must say I know how much Santi loves to play football and loves to be out there every day, and I feel very sorry for what happened to him, because it is unbelievable.”
It’s been quite an incredible show of strength, both mentally and physically, for Cazorla to be able to kick a ball again, let alone fire Oviedo to La Liga promotion.
As Lineker said, it was a fairytale moment for the Spaniard, who will forever be adored in N5.
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