‘SOMETIMES I DREAM IN ENGLISH THESE DAYS!’
BESIDES a shared mother tongue, David Raya hasn’t got much in common with Gabriel Batistuta.
One is a young goalkeeper for Blackburn Rovers. The other a legendary striker who won Serie A and played in three World Cups. Both, however, owe their discovery to vaunted team-mates who failed to make the grade.
In 1991, Batistuta was merely the makeweight in a deal that saw Diego ‘the new Maradona’ Latorre move to Fiorentina from Boca Juniors.
But whilst Latorre bombed and slithered into anonymity, Batistuta blossomed into a world-class goal machine.
Raya’s version of Latorre was a man named Hugo Fernandez. Rovers fans probably don’t remember the centre-back, who failed to make a single appearance after signing from Spanish side Cornella in 2010. These days, he plays for Martinenc in the sixth division.
But Raya does. “Hugo is the reason I am here, really,” he says. “When Blackburn signed him, part of the deal was that they take players from Cornella on trial every six months. I was one of the first ones they picked.
Reason
“It was the first time I’d ever been to England. I came from Thursday until Sunday and at the end they said ‘We want to sign you’. Unfortunately, I was only 15 so I wasn’t allowed to live here on my own. They said ‘OK, we’ll keep you in mind’, and I went home.”
Raya’s luck wasn’t out yet. Back in Spain and back in school, he continued playing for Cornella, a third tier side from the outskirts of Barcelona.
“In the summer of 2011, I had a really bad pre-season,” he recalls. “The club dropped me down to a lower level. It didn’t look good. Then Blackburn called and said ‘We’d like you to come back for two weeks’. That was October 2011 and they signed me for the season after.”
Raya was just a shade over 16 when he packed his bags and headed for Blighty. He arrived at Manchester airport in January 2012 with no friends, no parents and barely a word of English.
“I was never interested in learning languages at school,” laughs Raya. “I said to myself ‘I’m going to be a footballer, why do I need English?’ So much for that!
“It was tough for me back then. Not the food or the weather, though it’s true that it is very bad here. It was more the social side of things - being away from family and friends.
“Knowing that all my friends were going out together, having fun and I was here on my own - that was difficult.
“But every footballer, whether they move abroad or not, will tell you that you have to give up things to concentrate on football.
“And my parents ways had my back. When we were deciding what to do, my dad said ‘This is a really good experience for you. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work but at least you tried’. “And he always said that you won’t regret failing but you might look back in a couple of years and regret not going. That kind of made my mind up. “Looking back, it was very brave of them. Because as hard as it was for me, I’m sure it was harder for them to see their 16-year-old son go to live in a different country.”
Speaking to Raya now, it is hard to believe he learned the language from scratch. Our chat is peppered with colloquialisms and there is a Lancashire tinge to his pronunciation.
Already a legal resident, he is thinking of applying for a British passport with Brexit looming. “I think in English - sometimes I even dream in English,” he says. “I have a good circle of friends here
now and, most days, I feel more English than Spanish.”
Raya also feels, in his own words, like a grown man - a by-product of living alone from the age of 18 and a hard-knock baptism on loan at Non-League Southport.
On paper, the National League is no place for a teenage Spanish goalkeeper, but Raya thrived under the tutelage of former Hull defender Gary Brabin.
“I really, really enjoyed Southport,” says Raya. “It was one of the best three months I’ve had as a professional.
“I was 19 when I went there. I was used to playing Under-21s. Suddenly I was play- ing against 35-year-olds and no matter what you do, no matter where you are on the pitch, you’re getting smashed. You get kicked, you get elbowed, you get everything.
“Everybody targets the young players. You try to intimidate them as much as you can. I had to deal with all of that and it made me grow up.
“I can only thank Gary and the people at Southport because I think that’s why I am where I am now.”
Though integrated into the first team upon his return from Southport, it was the arrival of Tony Mowbray in 2017 that gave Raya lift-off at Blackburn.
Preferred to the experienced Jason Steele for the final five games of the 2016-17 campaign, he has missed just one match since - winning promotion from League One and earning a place in last season’s PFA team of the Year.
Proud
“It felt good,” said the 22-year-old. “And my parents, they are very proud. My dad is a big fan of football and he always uses iFollow to stream our games on the internet.
“They come to watch me whenever they can but, to be honest, they aren’t fans of England - they don’t like the food!”
Dad Antonio must be enjoying his streaming sessions - Rovers have lost just one of their first six matches and went into the international break two points off a play-off spot.
“For any relegated team, the main thing is not to get relegated,” says Raya. “But from the start we did not set any limits. We said ‘We will play our game, our way, and see where it gets us.
“If that means pushing for mid-table or pushing for the play-offs, we will try. But you have seen in the first six games, I think, that we are capable.”