Vitolo celebrates a year without playing: they didn’t even want him in the Arab Emirates

Last season he was promoted with the club of his life, but he had to live through the decisive match against Alavés at the Gran Canaria Stadium in crutches and off the field. He did it as a residual actor when he had returned to lead UD towards stardom. Although there were few expectations placed on him because already at Getafe, in the 2021-22 campaign, he only played 216 minutes spread over seven league games, he was one of the men called to lead the project of the assault on the elite.

But he didn’t have any luck in the Sports Union either. Misfortune smiled upon him and luck turned his face. 108 sad minutes he accumulated with Las Palmas in the 2023-24 season. He only played eight games under García Pimienta. On April 15, 2023 he said goodbye in Los Cármenes, against Granada, in a 2-1 defeat. He was sent off five minutes after entering the field to run. Nobody knew it then, but that cardboard could have meant the end of him.

A new operation

He had to undergo surgery again to have a Complete anterior cruciate plasty reconstruction of his right knee, which already kept him off the playing fields until then.

Today marks one year since that fateful confrontation in which he was sent off for a harsh tackle on a rival, the result of frustration and lack of competitive rhythm. He celebrated the promotion and returned to Atlético de Madrid injured, again, with whom he has a contract in force until June 2024 although the mattress club left him without a record. In January of this same year He tried in the United Arab Emirates, where they did not want him. He trained at the Emirates Club of Andrés Iniesta and Paco Alcácer. He didn’t pass the test.

Vitolo opened up in an interview in La Sexta where he explained his current situation: «Let’s see if I can find a team to play again, that’s what I want. It is a challenge to overcome. You get the idea that the best thing is to leave it.

The engine and its hope are its children. «In my good time in football, My children were very young and did not enjoy me very much.. Now, sometimes they ask me for videos at Sevilla, of when I scored goals. I want to enjoy that: for them to see me playing and give them joy,” added the UD Las Palmas youth player.

Now, and still with the goal of enjoying the ball again, Vitolo does not lower his head. That is why the UD, as he does with Jesé Rodríguez, has never closed the doors of Barranco Seco so that they can train whenever they want. The affection towards the extreme was always great.