Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya has been on a long journey to reach the top. Now a regular in the Premier League, the Champions League and for the Spanish national team, the fact the 29-year-old was forced to serve his apprenticeship in the lower realms of English football will have made his rise to stardom even sweeter.
Raya arrived in England at the age of 16 to join the academy of Blackburn Rovers. He was phased into the senior set-up while still a teenager and shipped out on loan to fifth-tier Southport in 2014/15 to gain valuable experience.
Not only was the standard of football unrecognisable from Raya’s current predicament, the Spaniard himself could be mistaken for a completely different person.
Sporting a stockier frame and a buzzcut, many Arsenal fans were in disbelief when the photo began circulating on social media over the weekend.
Part of Raya’s drastic appearance change is due to a terrifying injury he suffered while at Blackburn. A collision with Jay Rodriguez during a trip to West Bromwich Albion ‘almost pushed Raya’s brain into his skull’, according to Rovers boss Tony Mowbray.
The keeper required oxygen on the pitch and was taken to hospital for treatment. He wore a protective mask for two weeks and underwent surgery to reconstruct his nose at the end of the season.
“My nose isn’t the same,” Raya told the Lancashire Telegraph in 2018. “It can happen to anyone, it can happen with a header to a centre-back, so that won’t change my type of play or anything.”
Raya called time on his seven-year stay at Blackburn upon signing for Brentford in 2019. He immediately became a regular in west London and guided the Bees to promotion after two seasons in the Championship, before going on to impress in the Premier League.
Eyebrows were raised in the summer of 2023, when Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta swooped for Raya despite the popularity of the Gunners’ incumbent goalkeeper, Aaron Ramsdale. Raya started last season on the bench but quickly ousted Ramsdale from the starting line-up, and Arteta has not looked back since.
The Barcelona-born goalkeeper has been in scintillating form this season, with only Liverpool conceding fewer than Arsenal’s six Premier League goals thus far. Raya also pulled off a mesmerising double save in the Champions League against Atalanta, which opposition manager Gian Piero Gasperini described as ‘unbelievable’.
