It is becoming a constant. The fans of Real Murcia are getting used to the fact that homegrown players, footballers who were forged for a few years in the club’s youth teams, return home some time later. Many of them even had to leave through the back door or without opportunities to prove themselves. They have been returning for some time to remove the thorn, to fulfill a dream, to help their Murcia out of the third category pit and, incidentally, to be close to their family.
Carrillo and Arturo Molina have been the last, although in previous years there were more. The most notorious was Pedro León, who after playing 346 games in the First Division and scoring 43 goals in the highest category of Spanish football decided to return to Enrique Roca and wipe away the bad taste in his mouth left by his departure from the club in 2006 due to disagreements with Lucas Alcaraz and Jesus Samper. He returned at the age of 36, but his performance in the first season after his return (15 goals in 35 games) show that he did not return to retire, but rather to lead the team to Grana, at least until Second.
The most notorious return in recent years was that of Pedro León; Sergi Guardiola’s in 2017 earned him to reach the First Division
A season earlier, 2021-22 in the Second Federation, it was also a year that brought about the unexpected return home of several homegrown players who had not had the opportunity to put on the first team shirt. They were not as mediatic as the Muleño winger, but they also fulfilled a dream. The most famous return was that of Andrés Carrasco, a squad player from Granada until 2010 (he came to play 48 games with Imperial de Campos and Requena in Second B) to whom Manolo Molina gave the role of team scorer despite criticism and doubts from some Murcian sector. The ‘9’ was able to enjoy a course that allowed him to be key in Murcia’s promotion to the First Federation at Rico Pérez. Along with him, goalkeeper Miguel Serna, at 33, and full-back Mario Sánchez, at 28, also contributed to an achievement that sparked Murciamanía. Even Javi Saura, who in his second return to Murcia, ended up playing important minutes.
But there were also other returns that were not so round. Like those of Abenza, Jesús Carrillo and Youness, all in the 2020-21 campaign. The former played 22 games and scored a goal, but he decided to go to UCAM, which was going to play in the First Federation, a ticket that Murcia had not achieved. Not even the insistence of the Grana club prevented him, nor did the memory of his four years as a youth squad. The second returned to Murcia for half a season on loan from Castellón. After participating in 13 games, scoring three goals and leaving details of his quality, he also did not want to continue in a red team that without him would end up going up to the First Federation. He preferred to go to Numancia. Youness, who grew up in Murcia and went to Almería, also returned to the Granada club to play 20 games in the first team, although he too decided not to continue and went to Granada.
Carrasco, Serna, Saura and Mario Sánchez returned to the club in 2021 to play for the Grana first team and enjoy promotion
comeback scorers
Sergi Guardiola, Dani Aquino and Rafa Chumbi, three top scorers, also had their second chance at Murcia. The first returned in the 2016-17 campaign to the club where he was trained until he was 16 years old and where he was discarded by the technical secretary at that time. He returned for half the season from Australia and scored 10 goals in 18 games.
His return to Murcia was a turning point in his career since he later signed for Córdoba in the Second Division, the prelude to playing with Getafe, Valladolid, Rayo and Cádiz in the First Division. Dani Aquino, for his part, in addition to training in the red academy, even made his debut in the First Division with Murcia at the age of 17. He was in the grana first team from 2006 to 2011. Later he went through teams like Valladolid, Oviedo, Atlético de Madrid B, Numancia and Racing, until he returned to Murcia cajoled by the Gálvez. In half a year he showed his quality with 8 goals in 17 games, although he decided to leave again.
Like Rafa Chumbi, who left for Atlético de Madrid at a youth age and who also returned in 2019 to play for two and a half seasons, until he went to Marbella.
Kike, Isi and Fernando, going home that for now are unthinkable
Grana fans, especially through social networks, have dreamed this summer of the return of other iconic Real Murcia footballers who were in higher categories. Kike García has been one of them, although his return was always a chimera. In fact, the striker from La Mancha, who came to the club from Granada as a youth and left in 2014 after six seasons in the first team, has finally continued, at 33, in the First Division with Alavés. What cannot be ruled out, if Real Murcia finally stabilizes financially and is able to return to professional football, is that many of the homegrown players currently competing in the elite will return. Like great First Division scorers such as Rafa Mir and Portu. Or even a fashionable winger in Spanish football like Isi Palazón, as well as a goalkeeper like Fernando, a starter with Almería. Other younger players like Gonzalo Villar, Meseguer or Juanma Bravo, among others, are also candidates to follow the path of Pedro León.
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