Which was why the kid – a 19-year-old from just along the coast who had been at the club half his life – wasn’t the only one crying. The day Sergio Martínez played his first game for Racing, he had climbed into the stand to hug his grandad; the day he played his first in primera, on Sunday afternoon at the Sardinero, he just about managed to stand before it, legs giving way a little and tears coming to his eyes. All around him they felt it too, 22,413 people absolutely losing it.
What he had just done was, well, everything. At least that’s how it felt right then. In his first game in the first division, his third start ever, Sergio hadn’t just scored; he had scored the kind of goal you get in a comic, all explosions and exclamation marks.
The ball sat up like an invitation and Kapow! – Sergio smashed it on the bounce, a cartoon arrow drawn to the top corner. It tore through the air and through time, flashing past at 126km an hour and 14 years a second, so Sergio ran to the corner, holding the badge he has worn since he was 10. There, there was a wobble as it came to him just what he had done.
Bloody hell, this was actually happening. The teenager won’t even remember the last time Racing were in the first division: he was five. This was not just Sergio’s first top-flight game, it was Mantilla’s too – he was born and raised 5km away.
And it was Jorge Salinas’ first as well, another 19-year-old from Santander. Sergio Canales, an academy kid from Santander like them, had played there and with Racing but that was 16 years ago, when he was a teenager too, the most eligible in Spain. Thirty-five now, he had at last come home.
In almost the entire time he had been away, so had his club. Sunday afternoon was the first time that Racing, founder members of the first division, had played a top-flight game since 2012. And here they were 2-0 up against Villarreal, the redemption real.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
