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Bruno Soriano in the Squad list, will he feature?

Should we get our hopes up?

Villarreal CF v FC Barcelona - La Liga Photo by David Aliaga/MB Media/Getty Images

Bruno is back. After a very long time, specially for a professional player, he’s on the squad list against Granada. He last played in May 21, 2017 against Valencia, being sidelined since then with a knee injury. He got surgery for some problems he felt in his knee, but ended with problems of the patellar tendon of his left leg.

As he’s also very private, the level of information about his injury has been very low with only Villarreal providing information about it. He had some problems with it around 2018 I think which just made him miss the whole season, and recently there were rumors of some problem with the blood or something like that, but he seemed to be fit to play as he had said to a former coach of his.

Bruno has been a really interesting case, which has made him very loved as he’s possibly the best player Villarreal has had hailing from Castellón province. Born in a small town of less than 2000 inhabitants, he managed to enter Villarreal’s cantera and rise through the ranks before he left aged 16 to his town, where he worked in a quarry while playing for his hometown club Artana CF, playing in Preferente during the 2000/01 season (Preferente is below Tercera) which was the second time Artana played at that level, and haven’t returned there again.

Artana 2000/01. Bruno is in the center of the front row
Artana CF through his 2000/01 coach

Juan Carlos Garrido, which had also been a coach for Onda and knowledgeable about regional Valencian football, gave an offer to Bruno to return to Villarreal, which he hesitated to do at first, but his coach at Artana told him that he was being offered an unique opportunity. He accepted, was captain of the B team and finally made his debut at Primera. All this trajectory, from Preferente up to Primera becoming some sort of franchise player of Villarreal is unbelievable. He is still humble as that little boy from Artana who has achieved more than he ever thought. His return to a Primera match is heartwarming and he deserves that his career ends in a football field in Primera.

While he almost certainly will not start against Granada, will he finally make an appearance? We can’t wait to find out.