The front cover of El Mundo Deportivo called it “Luis Suárez’s day” while Sport excitedly told Lionel Messi: “It’s your night.” They were both wrong. Messi had a “date with History” but history stood him up and ran off with someone else instead. “I’m on a cloud,” sighed Jonny Castro dreamily and the headline that swooned at “a historic feat” the morning after that giddy night before was lovingly printed not in Catalonia but 1,165 kilometres away in Galicia. Jonny was born in Vigo, Pontevedra province, 20 years ago, he plays football for Celta Vigo and on Saturday night he and his team-mates won at the Camp Nou for the first time.
“This is emotional,” Jonny said after a 1-0 win was secured by Joaquín Larrivey’s goal. Jonny had never won there before and nor had any of his team-mates for any of their teams. His club hadn’t either. Messi was one away from Telmo Zarra’s record as all-time leading scorer in La Liga. Zarra’s record had stood for 59 years and will stand for at least another week. Instead, an even older record fell. Celta had only ever won once at Barcelona, before the Camp Nou was built, 73 years ago in October 1941 at the now-demolished Les Corts, where the backsides hanging over the backs of the stands earned Barça fans their nickname: the bums. But then Larrivey’s pre-match ritual does end on the same song with same lyric: “Here I am losing all notion of time.”
It was supposed to be Suárez’s day or Messi’s night. Instead, it was Jonny’s night. And Larrivey’s night. And Toto Berizzo’s night. And the Cat of Catoira’s night. It was all of their nights.
Nolito’s night, particularly. Berizzo is the Bielsa disciple who proudly declared: “We believed in our style,” after he had sent out his players to press Barcelona, one on one, all over the pitch and whose team now sit only three points behind the Catalans. Larrivey provided a neat finish, his seventh of the season, only behind Ronaldo, Neymar and Messi. And Sergio Álvarez, the Cat of Catoira, made nine saves, three of them absolutely stunning, to prevent Barcelona from scoring at home for the first time in 56 games. However, it was Manuel Agudo Durán, Nolito, who was facing the manager to whom he admits he owes “more than I could ever say”, whose inspiration won this game: it was his gorgeous backheel that created the only goal. “Pure magic,” as one Galician paper put it.
“They could have scored five,” Nolito admitted afterwards. Victory had been secured by his assist, Larrivey’s goal, a handful of dreadful misses, from Neymar, Messi and Suárez, and by four posts and nine saves. Javier Mascherano rightly admitted, though, that Barcelona didn’t play well and the misfortune didn’t stop the knives coming out – literally in El Mundo Deportivo’s case, whose culé cutlery collection comes in handy at a club where they’re for ever stabbing each other in the back. If Catalonia’s sports dailies couldn’t agree whose day Saturday was, by Sunday they were on the same page. “Chestnut,” ran the seasonal cover of Sport, Mundo Deportivo and even L’Esportiu. A chestnut is a blow and something rubbish, too.
Yet if Barcelona did not always impress, Celta did. Yes, they were fortunte, but this was not just chance; the moment might have been just a moment but it was not the only moment – there were other chances too – and it was also the reflection of a deeper trend. They have been good all season and they were good here. Nolito especially.
This is not the first time Nolito has outshone more illustrious opponents. The first time he got noticed was eight years ago when he was 20 and playing for tiny Second Division B side Écija. Écija drew with the galácticos in the Copa del Rey and he scored the goal. The following morning, the headline on the front cover of Marca ran: “Not Beckham, not Ronaldo, not Reyes, not Robinho: Golito de Nolito.” And there he was, standing by the local news stand, reading all about it. Everyone else was reading about him, too. By the end of the season, Nolito joined Barcelona. This weekend, he was at it again. Nolito’s golito, or little goal, had become a taconcito, or little backheel.
Not that it was easy. That was back in 2006. Nolito admits that he was not really ready for the move to Barcelona – he was big for a start – and he has had to leave to return in triumph. His has not been a smooth progression. It has taken eight years to get here and he has not travelled the most direct route.
Nolito is from Sanlúcar, in Cádiz in the south of Spain, where funny comes as standard and the cliche is of fantasy footballers, entertainers who are in it for the kicks. Listening to him talk, complete with whistling and jokes and giggling pottymouth, sprinkled with host bread and milk, it is hard not to like him. Watching him play on the left of a front three, his game sprinkled with touch and vision, speed and skill, it is hard not to like him, too.
Nolito admits that structured football, the pressure of competition, was not always his thing and yet he has worked extremely hard to be where he is; there has been resistance as well as brilliance. “There was a concrete fútbol sala court below my flat,” he told El País. “I joined a team but where I most played was down there. That’s been lost a bit. I would play there until 10 o’clock at night when they came and dragged me home. My memories of it as a kid was that it was always full. Now there are mobiles and consoles and computers. I go home I see it empty and it makes me sad. I go and watch kids play now and I see parents shouting at them, and I think: ‘Leave your kid alone! You think he’s Maradona. They’re there to enjoy themselves. You’re demanding 20 goals and four overhead kicks from them.’”
At 13, Nolito was working in a butchers’; at 16 he went to Valencia and back, not yet ready for the professional game; he joined third division Sanluqueño at 19 and at 20 he eclipsed Madrid’s galaxy with Écija, when he wasn’t even playing that often. Barcelona B came for him the following year and he shone with Luis Enrique but first-team opportunities were limited. He played only twice in 2010-11, even as he starred for Barcelona B. Pep Guardiola wanted him to stay, insisting he “completely deserves” an opportunity in the first team, while coaching staff said he was “a bullet”. But it changed little. “If I was 20, maybe, but I’m 24 now,” Nolito said. “I’m realistic: we have the best forwards in the world [ahead of me].”
A season at Benfica followed, with 11 goals in 29 games, and then a loan at Granada; the risk of him heading backwards lingered. Luis Enrique then brought him to Celta and last season he was superb, scoring 14 times. And that was despite Luis Enrique leaving him out of the starting lineup during an eight-week chunk of the season – a decision that Nolito admits was absolutely right. Now he is under different management and it is still working; in fact, Berizzo’s variation on a similar style may suit him even better and playing alongside Larrivey, signed from Rayo, certainly does. “They’re different but don’t ask me how … I haven’t got a clue about management,” he says.
Perhaps the surprise is that he is still there at all. In the summer, there was the chance to go to England; a huge contract was placed before him. “So why didn’t you?” Nolito was asked this during an interview on Al Primer Toque radio show last week. “Because it’s cold, it rains a lot and the food’s bad,” he replied. “Besides,” he added, “I’m happy here. Why would I change? I earn enough money. My family is poor [originally], I’m poor [originally], and I’m happy with what I’ve got. What do I need more for? Greed rips the bag.”
Nolito had found happiness, a home. First with Luis Enrique, now with Berizzo. The assist was no one-off; instead it was entirely consistent. Nor, despite the fortune that played a part, was the result. Celta are sixth and remain unbeaten away from home; the only team not to have lost on the road. They have scored in every away match. Last season, Nolito scored 14 times. So far this season, no Spaniard has more goals than him. And outside Real Madrid and Barcelona, only Koke has more assists. Vicente del Bosque has been watching him. An international call-up in a week’s time looks almost certain now. At home, too: Spain play Germany, in Vigo.
In the buildup to the game at the weekend, Nolito’s team-mates described him as “Celta’s Messi”. “Nah,” he says. “I’m Nolito.” And Saturday night was Nolito’s night.
Talking points and results
• “LFP: the champions say hello.” After an often tedious week in which the agenda has been dominated by fallout from the LFP awards, none of which were won by Atlético Madrid players – much to the curious glee of the league president, who pretty much sadly summed it up by claiming that the controversy added “atmosphere” – the football finally returned. But no one was forgetting it. The former Atlético Madrid midfielder Paulo Futre claimed the league had “spat in Atlético’s face”, the fans were furious and the club’s president, Enrique Cerezo, complained too – and Cerezo talking about a possible robbery and injustice is comedy gold from the brassiest of necks. To chants of champions and a million headlines all focused on the awards, Atlético won 4-2 against Córdoba. They’re now second, a single point behind the leaders …
• … who are Real Madrid after Sevilla passed up the opportunity to go top, with Aritz Aduriz’s volley giving Athletic Bilbao the win at San Mamés, their second in a row now. As for Real Madrid, they were wonderful again, James Rodríguez scoring a gorgeous volley in a 4-0 velvet-gloved destruction of Granada that means Madrid have now won 11 on the trot and scored 37 goals already this season. Luka Modric in particular was superb, while Cristiano Ronaldo produced a neat backheeled assist of his own. “Silk”, said one headline. It was certainly smooth. “It’s getting hard to talk about Ronaldo; I don’t know what to say any more,” Carlo Ancelotti said.
• You’ve got to love Valencia. Especially if you love numbers. They are second and they have won five out of five at home, scoring three every time. In fact, get this: every game they have played this season they have acquired as many points as they have scored goals. Seven times they have scored three and picked up three points; twice they have scored one and picked up one point and once they failed to score and picked up no points. When they returned to Mestalla after winning the ‘derby’ at Villarreal on Sunday night, the fans were there waiting for them, cheering and chanting. The good times are rolling with Nuno.
• Yoda. Score a good goal he did. Good player he is. The force is with him. Etc and so on. He really is good, though. He got the first as Getafe produced what Cosmin Contra described as their best performance of the season up at Deportivo.
• Another man down. Jagoba Arrasate has been sacked by Real Sociedad after another display sadly lacking in ideas or personality. Expect a replacement today. And keep an eye on it, too …
• Fifteen goals in 11 matches, none of them penalties but one of them from inside his own half. Two hat-tricks in three games. It’s a hell of a record. And check out the second this weekend: another beauty from Miguel Linares. Muñquera negra.
Results: Deportivo 1-2 Getafe, Granada 0-4 Real Madrid, Atlético 4-2 Córdoba, Barcelona 0-1 Celta, Real Sociedad 0-1 Málaga, Athletic 1-0 Sevilla, Villarreal 1-3 Valencia, Levante 2-1 Almería, Elche 2-1 Espanyol. Tonight: Rayo-Eibar.
