'I'm an Arsenal icon – I offered to play for boyhood club for free but wasn't allowed'
Arsenal hero Santi Cazorla spent six years in north London as he now plies his trade with boyhood club Real Oviedo - admitting he would play for the team for free
Former Arsenal star Santi Cazorla admitted he offered to play for his boyhood club for free - refusing to earn money for the team he started his career with.
The Spaniard, 39, has spent the longest chunk of his career in north London, playing six years at the Emirates before returning to his native Spain for his third stint with La Liga side Villarreal.
The attacking midfielder left in 2020 to join Qatari club Al Sadd, where he spent three seasons and won back-to-back league titles.
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Last year saw Cazorla make an emotional return to boyhood club Real Oviedo, 20 years after first leaving. He spent seven years in their youth system, but left in 2003 to join Villarreal. after Oviedo suffered from crushing debt and were relegated to the fourth-tier of Spanish football.
Oviedo now sit sixth in the the Segunda Division and are firmly in the hunt for promotion to La Liga for the first time in 23 years, with Cazorla making 20 appearances this season.
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The Spanish international is earning the minimum wage at Oviedo which is €93,000 (£80,000) but says he was reluctant to even take a salary, admitting he offered to play for the club for free.
"I would play for free but you’re not allowed," he said to the Guardian says. "They made a good offer. My wife said: ‘No, no, you’re not going to Oviedo to earn, you’re going home to enjoy it, to help, to give.’ I called my agent: ‘I don’t want any money.’ I told the president: minimum salary, 10% of shirt sales to the academy. It was done that night."
He spoke about the good experiences he's had at previous clubs but admits the "feeling and responsibility is deeper" when it comes to playing for his boyhood club. "I’ve been treated so well everywhere – at Arsenal everyone loves me, at Villarreal the same, at Recre, at Málaga … but the feeling and responsibility is deeper," he explained.
"People called it a step back, nothing to gain, but it’s the complete opposite. The responsibility is being up to that. I don’t want to be the guy who came to sell shirts or because he was a symbol of the academy; I want to be a footballer."