The left-back made his debut in 2014 with Pizzi and will reach the double hundred this weekend against Granada
Jose Luis Gayá (Pedreguer, Alicante, 1995) will reach this weekend 200 league games, a figure that is not available to many and even less with 25 years, nine months, and 26 days. In the case of international defense there is a fact that makes this centenary even more special. And is that He has played all the games with Valencia, a club to which he has belonged since he was eleven years old.
The left side, who he missed the last day due to a penalty, thus surpasses legends of black and white – the same Epi, from the electric forward, played 199– but it has also left behind other historical ones such as Kempes (184) or Villa (166) which obviously added more games in other clubs.
Recently, in the game against him Getafe of unfortunate memory for the hard defeat, Gayá fulfilled 250 matches between all competitions -European Cup and competitions- although the number of League matches is usually taken as a reference for the regularity wave relevance of a player in the first team. In fact, Gayá made his debut earlier in the Europa League and Cup than in the league.
It was Juan Antonio Pizzi the one who made him debut in the 2013-14 season in the League, on matchday 35 against a Athletic packed in LaLiga and in the Champions. The black and white team that crashed into the red and white defense did not play a bad game. Gayá played when Bernat and Guardado were left out -who had played side on occasions-. In that season Mathieu it was already acting as a central.
Arrive and stay
There are companions of Gayá’s squad today (Yunus Musah, Kangin Lee) who debuted in the league with the first team younger than him. However, what marks the left side trajectory is that from the moment he set foot in the first team he did so to become the undisputed starter. During his career in the first team only injuries –especially a pubalgia that he managed to overcome with Spartan discipline – they have prevented him from playing more games.
Gayá looked back at his career in an interview with MARCA a few weeks ago: “I started at 19 years old, but age does not matter, what matters is what you show on the field, how daring you are and that’s what people see. That you have that self-confidence, that you are not afraid. Because when you are so young you can get that vertigo and it is normal, it is logical in each footballer. But when you start so young in your career, it is normal that at some point you can have a slump, things don’t go well for you and the important thing is that at that moment you are strong in the face of what may come, be it injuries or bad times, “he describes.
“I started at 19, but age doesn’t matter, what matters is how daring you are, don’t be afraid.
That summer 2014, with the workforce revolution, the output of Pizzi, the landing of Lim with Nuno and his players, Gayá stayed in the first team, after the sale of Bernat to Bayern, with all the laws, to end the season no less than 35 games and one deserved renovation to scare away big clubs that had their eye on him, such as Real Madrid.
Captain in a delicate moment
Gayá recognizes that it is important that young people keep their feet on the ground if he debuts early and everything has gone faster since then: “When you debut and everything turns out so well at the beginning then, when things are turned around, it is not easy to turn the situation around. there are many people and many footballers who aim for so much and then they don’t reach what they really aimed for. I have been fortunate to be well advised in all this. All the groups and changing rooms that I have had when things did not work out, they have always helped me. “
Gayá is one of the squad veterans and he has been the captain of the team in a delicate moment. Sportingly, Valencia is in the lower-middle part of the table, although for the moment he should not fear for salvation. For her responsibility of being captain it is above the sporting moment of the team. East first half of 2021 had set the club as a propitious time to try the renewal of the footballer, that ends contract in 2023. But the delicate sporting situation and the uncertainty with the future of management of the club, has not moved tab.
