ARSENAL hero Santi Cazorla has revealed he would be more than happy to play football for FREE if he was allowed to.
Cazorla, 39, returned to boyhood club Real Oviedo, the club he joined when he was only eight years old, last summer after 20 years away.
The midfielder was promoted through the Spanish sides ranks before moving to Villarreal.
His career took him through Recreativo Huelva and Malaga before he arrived in north London in 2012, where he stayed for six years.
A return to Villarreal was followed by a stint in Qatar with Al-Sadd before he linked back up with Oviedo, near where he grew up.
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Cazorla, a two time European Championship winner with the Spanish national team, always wanted to play for the Carbayones when growing up, but was never able to due to the club being in crisis.
However, that has all changed now, and Cazorla is relishing every minute of being back home.
Indeed, in an interview with The Guardian, he revealed how he had the best feeling when scoring a goal for Oviedo in Spain's second tier against Alcorcón, only for the goal to be ruled out by VAR.
He said: "The goal I’ve lived with most feeling. And I had already celebrated.
"He (the referee) said: ‘I’m really sorry to rule this out.’ He was from Huelva and said: ‘We have great memories of you.’
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"But, you know what? Nothing can take that moment away, even if VAR did.
"I’ve spoken to people in the stands and the experience was so real, so authentic, it will always be there.
"My first professional goal in this shirt: I’d waited a very, very long time."
Cazorla has been waiting all his career to return, but when making his return it took a suggestion from wife, Ursula Santirso, to help him seal the deal.
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He said: "I would play for free but you’re not allowed.
"They made a good offer. My wife said: ‘No, no, you’re not going to Oviedo to earn, you’re going home to enjoy it, to help, to give.’
"I called my agent: ‘I don’t want any money.’ I told the president: minimum salary, 10% of shirt sales to the academy. It was done that night."
His minimum salary still works out at a handy £80,000 a year, but that figure is some way off the £173million Cristiano Ronaldo earns per year at Al-Nassr - more than 2,000 times as much.
Cazorla is now embarking on his "greatest challenge" of returning Oviedo to the Spanish top flight for the first time since 2001.
And after a rough start to the season which saw the team second bottom and Cazorla miss the opening five league games, he admits the responsibility of it weighs on him.
He said: "I’ve been treated so well everywhere – at Arsenal everyone loves me, at Villarreal the same, at Recre, at Málaga … but the feeling and responsibility is deeper.
"People called it a step back, nothing to gain, but it’s the complete opposite. The responsibility is being up to that.
"I don’t want to be the guy who came to sell shirts or because he was a symbol of the academy; I want to be a footballer.
“That responsibility weighs. I was a bit scared at first. You don’t know if you’re good enough, which still happens: I’m not at the same level, especially physically.
I called my agent: ‘I don’t want any money.’ I told the president: minimum salary, 10% of shirt sales to the academy. It was done that night.
Santi Cazorla
"You come at 38, from three years in a lesser league. I had a pubis problem, hardly did pre-season, and the team was struggling. I felt even worse because I couldn’t help."
Oviedo are now just outside the playoff spots, sitting in seventh and denied sixth due to a worse head-to-head record against Sporting Gijon.
Cazorla also opened up on his time at Arsenal, revealing he saw the potential of Mikel Arteta before everyone else.
He said: "Injured, watching games together, he would get the remote and pause it. ‘What are you doing?’
"He would say: ‘Go back, go back’, rewind 30 seconds, and ask: ‘What do you see?’ ‘I see a paused screen! What do you want me to see?!’
"He would say: ‘Look at this guy here, how badly he’s positioned. If he goes here, and he goes there, this space opens’. Every game, pausing every 20 seconds.
"The match has finished and we’re still in the 20th minute. I’m thinking: ‘What’s with this guy?’ He sees it. I love football but I don’t. I think it’s a gift."
Reflecting on his time at Arsenal, where Cazorla won two FA Cups, he said: "I owe them a lot, they hold a special place."
