David Raya epitomizes the graft required to go from the fifth tier to the very top
Goalkeeper has pressed his World Cup case with his role in Arsenal’s title triumph
Former team-mates Jordi Gomez and Joel Valencia recall the stopper's determination
David Raya’s story is not dissimilar to that of any other budding student who might travel to the United Kingdom to improve their English in search of a brighter future. Many a youngster has set out on that same path.
The difference lies in the fact that the Catalan’s vehicle of choice was football, which has propelled him to stratospheric heights – including the .
The newly-anointed Premier League champion is now preparing for his second taste of men’s football’s flagship global event, having been an unused squad member at Qatar 2022.
Raya’s very first steps in English football stemmed from a partnership between lower-division Catalan side Cornella and Blackburn Rovers that gave the aspiring teen the chance to take part in an initial four-day try-out, and he was subsequently called back for a further four-week trial.
He finalized his move to the 1994/95 Premier League winners on a youth scholarship in July 2012, before signing his first professional contract with the club in February 2014. Shortly after that, the goalkeeper went out on loan to non-league outfit Southport in the fifth tier of English football to continue his apprenticeship.
When the Barcelona native rejoined Blackburn in January 2015, he gradually managed to edge his way into the first-team picture. Jordi Gomez, an FA Cup winner with Wigan Athletic, arrived at Ewood Park the following year, and that was when the veteran central midfielder first met Raya, who is a decade his junior. He said: “Even when he wasn’t playing, he was always willing to go all out in training.”
Blackburn finished the 2015/16 campaign in 15th place in the English Championship but Raya was not a regular starter. It wasn’t until the 2017/18 season, the club having dropped down a rung to League One, that the ball-playing glovesman established himself as the first-choice keeper at the age of 22. Promotion swiftly followed.
“When you’re a goalkeeper, you either play or you don’t. He just dealt with not playing by continuing to train and wanting to improve so he would be ready. When he got his chance, he seized it, and he’s continued to do that up to the present day,” said Gomez, who would occasionally use the benefit of his experience to offer his young team-mate some brotherly advice.
“There were a few times when he talked about how frustrating it was to be there giving everything without getting a shot."
There was an influx of new players at the then Championship outfit Brentford ahead of the 2019/20 season as part of Thomas Frank’s rebuild. Among them were Raya and the Spanish-Ecuadorian winger, Joel Valencia. The two newcomers hit it off instantly.
It quickly became clear to Valencia that the shot-stopper would go on to achieve great things. He remembered: “Within the first few weeks, we were at his place chatting about what we wanted to achieve in the future. He talked about making his debut for Spain, playing in the Champions League... I told him not to worry, that he would achieve all of that. I hadn’t seen a keeper like him in a very long time.
“He’s different – his distribution and, above all, his mindset. Lots of people slip up and it gets to them, but when David makes a mistake, he owns it and jumps right back into the action. That’s what sets him apart."
Another Spaniard, Manu Sotelo, was drafted in as the West London club’s goalkeeping coach ahead of the 202/21 campaign, following spells at Deportivo La Coruna, Nottingham Forest and Qatari giants Al Ahli. The Bees would win promotion to the Premier League that term, with Raya keeping 17 clean sheets in 45 Championship appearances.
Sotelo recalled: “I joined the club two weeks after the promotion play-off final at Wembley that they’d lost to Fulham, the one with that wide free-kick [Joe Bryan’s effort, which caught Raya out at the near post]. We clicked really quickly. It’s so easy to work with David. The method doesn’t matter to him. He just wants to train and get better every day.
“He wasn’t one to obsess over every little detail, but what was incredible about him was his work ethic. He was constantly demanding things of you in a way you don’t see with other keepers. He always wanted to do more. He was brilliant.”
The coach added: “David was always extremely ambitious. He knew he was good enough to play in the Premier League, to represent a really big club and get into the Spain team. We talked about that after a few months, even though we were still in the Championship. He was a really good keeper and the best of the bunch in training. He always wanted to work.”
Fourteen years on from his humble beginnings at the Blackburn academy, not only has the Spaniard established himself as an elite performer in the English top flight and reached a Champions League final, he has also celebrated Premier League glory with Arsenal, winning the Golden Glove in the process.
He now hopes to go one better by helping La Roja claim the ultimate crown at this year’s .
Sources: FIFA Official
