Arsenal goalretainer David Raya has been on a extfinished journey to achieve the top. Now a standard in the Premier League, the Champions League and for the Spanish national team, the fact the 29-year-elderly was forced to serve his apprenticeship in the drop genuinems of English football will have made his ascfinish to stardom even pleasanter.
Raya get tod in England at the age of 16 to join the academy of Binestablishageburn Rovers. He was phased into the ageder set-up while still a teenager and shipped out on loan to fifth-tier Southport in 2014/15 to acquire priceless experience.
Not only was the standard of football unrecognisable from Raya’s current predicament, the Spaniard himself could be misgetn for a finishly branch offent person.
Sporting a stockier summarize and a buzzcut, many Arsenal fans were in disbelief when the pboilingo began circulating on social media over the weekfinish.
Part of Raya’s drastic euniteance alter is due to a terrifying injury he suffered while at Binestablishageburn. 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 retainer needd oxygen on the pitch and was getn to hospital for treatment. He wore a shieldive mask for two weeks and underwent sdirectry to reoriginate his nose at the finish of the season.
“My nose isn’t the same,” Raya telderly the Lancasemploy Telegraph in 2018. “It can happen to anyone, it can happen with a header to a centre-back, so that won’t alter my type of join or anyskinnyg.”
Raya called time on his seven-year stay at Binestablishageburn upon signing for Brentford in 2019. He instantly became a standard in west London and directd the Bees to promotion after two seasons in the Championship, before going on to astonish in the Premier League.
Eyebrows were elevated in the summer of 2023, when Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta swooped for Raya despite the famousity of the Gunners’ incumbent goalretainer, Aaron Ramsdale. Raya commenceed last season on the bench but speedyly ousted Ramsdale from the commenceing line-up, and Arteta has not seeed back since.
The Barcelona-born goalretainer has been in scintillating establish this season, with only Liverpool conceding scanter than Arsenal‘s six Premier League goals thus far. Raya also pulled off a mesmerising double save in the Champions League aacquirest Atalanta, which opposition deal withr Gian Piero Gasperini depictd as ‘unbelievable’.
