Watching a football match when the results do not depend on budgets, that is, on the ability to sign the best, is, above all, an exercise of faith. The fan of a small team chooses to believe: that the bigger team can beat; that one of their forwards can knock down the goalkeeper who wins chiquinientas times more and his goalkeeper prevents the goal of a ballon d’or. The ball has no owner until it starts rolling and the most humble know the Lord’s Prayer as well as the Pope. After all, David vs. Goliath is a biblical story. Furthermore, the world would be much more boring if there were not people willing to bet against Goliath and football would be less beautiful and exciting if David did not win some matches.
Javier Cercas explained that one of the purposes of his latest book, The madman of God at the end of the worldwas “trying to understand an institution that has 2,000 years of history,” the Catholic Church. Real Oviedo does not reach that point, but in its centenary, which will be celebrated in 2026, there is already enough of a miracle. In 2012 it faced a case for dissolution because it was missing two million euros and a website in eight languages, made by an amateur, managed to multiply its loaves and fishes: 36,962 people from 86 countries bought shares in the team, among them, the current mayor of New York. Previously, another councilor, but this one from the Asturian capital, had tried to destroy the team by inventing another one, the ACF, better known as “El Engendro”.
With this background, which includes 12 years in the second, eight in the second and another four in the third, Oviedo transformed survival into an epic when, in June 2025, it returned to the first category of Spanish football. The Asturian capital, commented a La Liga worker, looked like Rio de Janeiro in full carnival. The celebrations lasted several days and many took to the streets with a t-shirt that recalled: “I did not abandon Real Oviedo in Third”. It seemed then very difficult to squander that capital of hope, as well as to extinguish the eternal smile of Cazorla, the Ulysses who had returned to his Ithaca, precisely, to push the team to promotion. But it has happened.
The results are damning. The team went into the Christmas break with 11 points in 17 games and just seven goals – the last one, in October. But the most eloquent fact about the seriousness of the situation is that Oviedo has more coaches (three: Paunovic, Carrión and Almada) than victories (two: against Valencia and Real Sociedad). At this point in the winter we can already say that the summer signings did not go well and, in fact, two of them will no longer continue with the team in the second round of the season: Rondón, 36 years old, starter in 13 games, returns to Mexico; and Brandon Domingues, a midfielder, who did not even make his debut in the league, is going on loan to a Polish club. Ilic only started six games; Bailly, in four; Ejaria, in two; Fores in one. The board let Alemao go, now at Rayo, who had scored 14 goals with the blue shirt the previous season, and the continuity of Hassan, who was decisive in one of the team’s only two victories in the First Division, is up in the air.
To make matters worse, the new coach, who left Valladolid that way, now in second place, made more than one’s hair stand on end as soon as he arrived in Oviedo. Asked about “the role” that he would like Santi Cazorla to have “on the field,” he responded: “He is a reference within the club, and regardless of whether he plays a lot, a little or the entire game, he is a contribution as a group leader, due to the experiences he has had.” He seemed to be referring to some kind of coach or an inspiring poster in the locker room, despite the fact that the magician’s legs (both of them) continue to provide the team’s best game. In his first game, he took out the two-time Euro champion in the 81st minute. If they make the Oviedo fan choose between a living legend and any coach, it is easy to guess the answer. Troy burned for less. Cazorla, who returned in 2023 to return the blues to First Division, earning the minimum salary for the category, there is only one, and Almada, for now, was found in Valladolid. I hope we are wrong and the Kings bring us a good center forward. Others I don’t know, but this hobby has been very good. He has attended mass in first, second and third grade fields. He has never stopped believing.
