Iago Aspas scored twice for Celta Vigo against Real Betis on Monday night and very few were surprised. The first, a cool, left-footed finish into the bottom corner, came from a defensive mistake but he capitalised clinically.
The second, to make it 3-1 and effectively game over, came from a swift counter-attack. It was Aspas who won the ball in midfield and it was Aspas who finished off the move, bundling the ball over the line after Riza Durmisi’s square ball.
It took his tally for the season to 14 goals in La Liga, bettered only by Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. His goals, too, have helped Celta climb to seventh; 13 points from the last 15 available; two behind Sevilla in sixth.
By now, though, this is not unexpected. Since he returned to Celta in 2015 after the disappointment of his spell with Liverpool in the Premier League, Aspas has excelled: he scored 18 in his first campaign and 26 last season. Now he’s on course to better those totals.
It has always seemed that Aspas, quiet and unassuming, is more comfortable playing for Celta in Galicia than anywhere else. He has struggled when he has not. Between his first and second spells with his boyhood club he featured for Liverpool and Sevilla and impressed with neither.
At Anfield, he is remembered for a botched corner. Aspas scored only once in his single season with the club and when he left to return to Spain there were few dissenting voices.
“The club and I both felt that this was the best moment to return,” he said when he arrived back in Vigo. “We both made a massive effort and I’m very grateful. I’ve been through difficult times after these past two years; I need to regain my confidence because I went through some rough patches.
“It would’ve been easier to continue playing for those clubs I had a contract with, earning money and sitting at home. But I like to enjoy my football, play and that’s why, although I had other options, the best choice was to come back home.”
There is no doubt now that it was the best choice. Aspas returned and he was happy, perhaps the key factor for a player with such a palpable connection between emotion and performance.
He has since been integral to Celta’s significant development over the past two seasons. Aspas is his side’s leader, their attacking focal point, the man to whom his teammates turn when in need of inspiration.
Celta played in Europe last season, meeting Manchester United in the knockout stages of the Europa League, a high-profile tie that would have been unimaginable only a few years ago. It is made more remarkable when considering the fortunes of the club in the early stages of Aspas’ career.
His second appearance for the club, in 2009, came at a time when relegation to the third tier of Spanish football was a realistic possibility.
Nine years later, they could be on course to qualify for the Europa League once again. At the heart of this meteoric rise has been Aspas; his influential performances have been entwined with the club’s ascent to the top-half of La Liga.
His form has not gone unnoticed internationally, either. Aspas, in his current form, is expected to be included in Julen Lopetegui’s Spain squad for this summer’s World Cup in Russia. If he continues to score at the current rate his selection will be inevitable.
It will likely provide Aspas with great satisfaction that, having been written off and labelled a flop after a short, underwhelming spell at Liverpool, he has returned to prominence so emphatically. But, then, he is not a player who allows such triviality to concern him.
“I don’t have to prove anything to anyone; I just have to help my team,” he has said. “I have to be the player I’ve been this season. I have already proved myself.” He has, and there is likely more to come.
