Santi Cazorla, the Miracle Man!
This post aims to draw attention to the inspiring comeback of Santi Cazorla, a Spanish footballer, who was at the verge of losing a leg in the middle of an illustrious career but went on to reinstate his aura as a star player in the Spanish League! ( alongside names like Lionel Messi :) )
Introduction
Football has deep roots in history but it started to gain widespread emergence in the 1870s. Back then, football became the catalyst to bridge the gap between the working class and the royalty in England. Those were early days when “the rules of the game” were framed. Fast forward to the present and football has its own glamour. The most popular sport across the planet, with extremely talented footballers, well-defined football system with smoothly run commercial football clubs which are a source of joy for people like us, the fans! Football is highly lackluster today, with enormous amounts of money being put in. Football deserves every bit of that popularity, after all, it has given so many memories which fans cherish life-long and how can I forget those motivating players. Lovely game, football!
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are household names, inspiring the younger generation of our time to pursue their dreams and never give up. You can see people wearing jerseys with names like Zidane, Xavi, Iniesta, Henry, Ronaldinho, Neymar, Pirlo, Maldini, Gerrard ( I can go on like this till eternity….. :) ) written on their backs. Rightly so, these players have shown exceptional pieces of play in their careers which are too good for the statistics to cover. Under the bright limelight of these shining superstars, some stories get overshadowed. Stories which, deserve to capture the attention of anyone who loves football, and anyone who is facing tough times as he/she has never faced before. The warriors who never stop moving forward no matter how tough the situation is, become an inspiration for others to succeed in the test of life just like he/she did! One such warrior is Santi Cazorla.
The story begins
You might not have heard of the name if you are not a football fan, a lot of people don’t know of him. Santi was part of the golden generation of the Spanish National team which won the Euro 2008, FIFA World Cup 2010, and Euro 2012 becoming the first team to do so in the history of the beautiful game! He wasn’t a regular starter in the team( he also had to miss the World Cup due to an unfortunate illness) but it would be highly unfair to doubt his capabilities if it took a player like Xavi Hernandez, to bench him. For those of you who don’t know Xavi is regarded as one of the best playmakers of all time :). Coming back to Santi, he also became an integral part of Arsenal Football Club, making significant contributions in the team’s 2014 FA Cup triumph. Apart from his footballing genius, Santi is a really cheerful chap and a highly admired figure even amongst the rival fans (this is very very rare in football, Even Messi is hated by some…huh). In October 2013, Santi suffered an injury during an international match against Chile, although he went on to play the entire match. Only to get to know that he played the entire match with a cracked bone! Footballers generally suffer such injuries and it’s no big deal, in Santi’s case it would have been the same, only if his passion and love for football had let him feel the cries of his cracked bone. Still, he returned to top-flight football with Arsenal after a short break but soon started feeling some mysterious pain which was minor in magnitude at the same injury spot. Football’s own man! How could he stop playing due to a minor pain? He continued his flamboyant play but by the 2016 season the pain grew up to an unbearable state. Santi had to take a break from football for some surgeries. His first surgery seemed successful initially but an infection that he picked up during the surgery extended his recovery time. Santi worshipped football, and without his beloved football, he had lost all his happiness. Still, it was expected that he would join football soon enough. The worse was yet to come, the infection started causing another set of problems and Santi had to undergo another surgery. Arsene Wenger the veteran football manager who coached Arsenal for 22 long years described that he hadn’t seen a more complicated injury in his lifetime. Several more operations ensued. Several more times his body betrayed him. His wounds kept reopening. Yellow pus used to pour out of his ankle at night, seeping through his stitches. Cazorla’s medical team told him to banish thoughts about playing football again: The best he could strive for was a game in the garden someday with his two kids, Enzo and India.
Santi retreated to his hometown in Spain where he consulted another renowned sports surgeon. After some reports, it was clear that some bacteria were eating up Santi’s Achilles tendon at the back of his right foot. It had already riddled 8 cm of the tendon which is generally 15 cm long. Santi underwent yet another surgery, no. 10 this time. The doctor described the surgery as extremely risky but crucial in the absence of which, Santi’s ability to walk was at risk. It was July 2017 and he left his hometown for a physiotherapy course and, against all odds, with the hope of stepping on the football pitch again. A born winner, Santi underwent a very heavy and focused physical recovery track. He lived a monastic existence in Salamanca. His family stayed in London where his kids were at school, later moving to Asturias to be closer to their extended family. His daily schedule started at 10 a.m. and might not finish until after 11 p.m. at night. His days were a swirl of Pilates, swimming-pool sessions, and physical workouts interspersed with physiotherapy. Step by step, Cazorla made progress. In August 2017, he got to do his first bit of running. The strength in his legs started to come back. But then disaster struck. In November 2017, his leg broke down again. He was back to square one, the spree of surgeries, his hard work, all got nullified in a few moments. Anyone else would have given up easily but passion is one nasty little thing that can push you beyond boundaries. Another leg-saving surgery followed along with some strict instructions to avoid physical exertion. Although, Santi had some other stringent desires!
“Santi has a lot of personality,” says Herranz, Santi’s physiotherapist. “He’s a guy who is really tough. He makes sacrifices. He’s a fighter. He’s very positive. If he weren’t so positive a lot of sportspeople in his situation would have abandoned the treatment cycle.” “It’s the force of his willpower — his mentality. He never ever lost the desire to return to play football. He always said — even if I was losing my faith — that he would play football again. The hours of work he did in the gym, working on his muscles, repeatedly, was incredible.” — Santi’s surgeon.
Santi defied all odds to play a friendly game of football in July 2018. A 600-day journey since he was carried off the ground on a stretcher, he was back after defying all the best known medical practices of our time. A man who was once told to pray for the ability to walk again was about to play professional football! In August 2018, Spanish club Villarreal offered Cazorla a contract who was already 33 and you very well know by now the number of physical hardships he went through. ( Just for context, Villarreal was Santi’s boyhood club ) Fast forward to today, Santi had an amazing season with some brilliant pieces of play on the field. He has turned the match all by himself on various occasions. He was even better in the current season scoring bangers against giants like Barcelona and Real Madrid at their own home and then leaving the pitch with a standing ovation from rival fans. Let alone deterioration, Santi’s game has improved in the 600-day injury break!
Final Few Words
Santi Cazorla’s story is another demonstration of the brawn of a man’s will power and the famous saying, “If you have a dream to chase, nothing can stop you!”.
This blog was just an attempt to do justice to the brilliance of Santi Cazorla and to his extremely motivational story which has the ability to serve as an inspiration for mankind, for generations to come. We as supporters, often get behind the top elite of the football fraternity and often forget to pay due respect to stories like these. Hope Santi’s story becomes a forever legend!
You can watch Cazorla describing his tragic story in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdGxg6ckWgk
His ability to turn football into an art form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehgIIKesS94
And finally some of his best moments after returning from surgery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehgIIKesS94
