Santi Cazorla and Oviedo face Barcelona test as old friends Paunovic and Fortune bid to keep club in La Liga

Asturian side back in top-flight after 24-year absence with local hero still playing at 40 and nomadic management duo in the dugout

Santi Cazorla of Real Oviedo is challenged by Yvan Neyou of Getafe CF. Getty Images

Connections made between footballers early in their careers can be among the strongest. Friendships formed before fame or failure, when players are young and single with plenty of time on their hands.

When Roy Keane became a manager, his assistant was Tony Loughlan, whom Keane met when he first arrived in England as a young player at Nottingham Forest.

Pep Guardiola’s closest football ally is Txiki Begiristain, alongside whom he appeared as a youngster at Barcelona. Guardiola also knew Mikel Arteta from his early days at Barcelona and made him his assistant at Manchester City.

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From teammates such as Mark Hughes and Mark Bowen, Diego Simeone and Mono Burgos, or coaches who met at the start of their new career and stuck with the same assistant, from Arne Slot to Xabi Alonso, it’s a norm in football.

On Thursday night, Real Oviedo host Barcelona. Yet another big home game for the Asturian side playing top-flight football for the first time since relegation in 2001, and with their 40-year-old local hero Santi Cazorla set to start.

Before 2001, the team from the attractive capital of the lush, mountainous Asturias region, had played more games in Spain's top-flight than any other lower divisions.

And now they’re back. The first visitors to their impressive, modern and usually full 31,000-seater Carlos Tartiere Stadium were Real Madrid, Real Sociedad and next up Barcelona. It’s a tough start for a team who were promoted via the play-offs after missing out to Espanyol in the previous season.

Oviedo averaged 20,000 crowds last term – though it was a full-house when neighbours Sporting Gijon visited for the Asturian derby. They’re big enough to be staging La Liga football – but this season will be about staying up. Oviedo have won only one of their opening five games, against Real Sociedad. That was by a single goal, the only one they have scored all season against eight conceded.

The manager charged with keeping the team up is the Serbian Veljko Paunovic, assisted by the South African Quinton Fortune.

The pair met when they were starting out at Atletico Madrid and have worked together coaching at Reading, Guadalajara and Tigres in Mexico and now at Oviedo in Spain. Oviedo is owned by Grupo Pachuca, the owner of Liga MX clubs Pachuca and Club Leon.

Football’s multi-club system has its critics, but it has given Oviedo the financial stability they did not have for much of this century. At one point, fans from 86 different countries dug deep, buying shares in the club.

Paunovic and Fortune, both 48, speak Spanish and have played in the country – Paunovic for a time at Oviedo including when they were last in La Liga.

They arrived only in March of this year on short-term contracts and the team sixth in the league, having lost three out of their previous four games. Under their new coaching team Oviedo did not lose one of their remaining 10 league matches, playing a 4-2-3-1 system and then went up via the play-offs.

“Proud of never abandoning,” read a huge tifo from the fans, rightly pointing out that they’d stuck with their team through thin and thinner.

Oviedo, 17th in the all-time Spanish league table, twice sunk as low as Spain’s regional fourth tiers in the early 2000s among the other 363 clubs at that level including B teams, Real Madrid’s C team and village teams, and as recently as 2015 were playing third-tier football.

Fortune, who grew up on the notorious Cape Flats near Cape Town in Apartheid era South Africa, left Spain for Manchester United in 1999, where he enjoyed success as a versatile player and was hugely popular with teammates and fans alike in a seven-year spell.

It was a surprise move – United were European champions, Fortune played for Atletico’s B team. He later returned as a coach at Old Trafford with younger teams.

He is not alone in having a Manchester United link. Ivorian defender Eric Bailly is on loan from Villarreal, though he is yet to break into the team. There are several Africans including Ghanian midfielder Kwasi Sibo, left-back Rahim Alhassane, from Niger, and Angolan defender David Carmo, who is on loan from Nottingham Forest.

There are also footballers with experience in England’s Premier League, including Leander Dendoncker, 30, and veteran striker Salomon Rondon, 36, who is on loan from Pachuca. Attacking midfielder Luka Illic, who was part of the Man City group of clubs, has also arrived.

Yet no Oviedo article can go without a mention of Cazorla. Now 40 and mostly coming off the bench, the wondrous attacking midfielder is a local boy and started out as a youth player when Oviedo were a top-flight side, then joining Villarreal, Malaga, Arsenal and Al Sadd before his return home to Asturias in 2023.

With 81 Spain caps to his name and from a family of Oviedo fans, he enjoyed the perfect homecoming. He was instrumental in promotion and Paunovic says he'll start against Barca.

“It’s mad, ridiculous really that the best moment of my life is this at 40,” said Cazorla as the crowd filled the streets of the historic city after promotion.

“I have been lucky to live great things; I have won titles, cups, but I have suckled on Oviedo since I was a kid, the feeling here is different. This is unique.” Oh, for them to have the Cazorla of five or 10 years ago.

This season is likely to be one where the wins are fewer and the nerves as to whether they can stay up become frayed. Just to be here is a success for now, but a club which attracted almost 30,000 in a wealthy city of 220,000 in northern Spain should be a top-flight side.

And while Fortune only played six games for Atletico before his surprise move to Manchester, two were against Barcelona. On Thursday he and Paunovic face their latest huge test when the Catalans visit.