SANTI CAZORLA has signed a new one-year deal with boyhood club Real Oviedo aged 40 — and will earn just over £3,000-per-week in La Liga.
The former midfielder returned to Oviedo in 2023, playing a starring role in last season’s promotion back to the Spanish top flight for the first time in 24 years.
He netted a stunning free-kick in their 2 play-off semi-final against Almeria before in extra time.
Cazorla , but La Liga 2 regulations forced him to take a minimum wage of £77,000-a-year or £1,480-per-week.
, he will now earn the La Liga minimum wage of £168,000-a-year or £3,230-a-week — but continuing an agreement that 10 per cent of his wage and shirt sales will go towards the academy.
A club statement read: “With this renewal, , a symbol and emblem of Oviedo, proves that dreams, when pursued with the heart, come true.
“Real Oviedo secures the leadership of a footballer who embodies the club’s values like few others, both on and off the field.”;
Cazorla, who turns 41 in December, scored five goals and registered five assists in 35 games last season.
A two-time European champion with , the midfielder spent six years at Arsenal and made 180 appearances before leaving in 2018.
He suffered an Achilles injury in October 2016, going on to have 11 operations to cure the problem.
One of the operations led to gangrene with doctors telling Cazorla he should be satisfied to walk again, never mind play.
But he ignored that doomsday prognosis and after an operation to rebuild his Achilles — including having a skin graft from his arm to his ankle — he returned to playing after a 22-month absence.
Oviedo’s first La Liga fixture is away at — another former club of Cazorla’s — on August 15 before hosting Jude Bellingham’s Real .
