Adam Bate reports from the Trofeu Taronja in Valencia and talks to striker Rafa Mir about his return to the club. Supporters at Mestalla are desperate for a hero to emerge as they bemoan the ownership and long for a return to the glorious days of their past…
Sunday 11 August 2024 20:20, UK
As pre-season knockabouts go, the Trofeu Taronja in Valencia has history. The first goal of the inaugural edition in 1959 was scored by Pele, one of six he netted that summer as Santos claimed the prize. This year, it was Rafa Mir's turn to open the scoring.
His goal helped Valencia win 3-2 against Eintracht Frankfurt. The players seemed unsure whether to celebrate with the trophy - a wooden bat honouring the flying mammal on the club's logo - but Mir could be excused his joy. He's had to wait for his Mestalla moment.
"It means a lot," he tells Sky Sports afterwards, grabbing a quiet word in English after the striker has been peppered with questions by the Valencia press pack. "I was at this club for six years as a kid and I am very happy to be back. It is amazing to be home."
He has returned on loan from Sevilla, a protracted deal that was close to going through in January. Valencia have wanted to bring him back rather longer than that and Mir talks of it being "a difficult year for me to get here" - he fought to make the move happen.
Now 27, Mir was barely out of his teens when he departed first time around, just as he had forced his way into the first-team reckoning. A move to Wolverhampton, then in the Championship, was not easy. Even now, he shudders at the memory before laughing.
"What weather," he says. "Amazing. Raining every day." Maybe a January transfer was not the best idea. He appeared only four times for Wolves, twice against Swansea in the FA Cup and brief action off the bench against Barnsley and Nottingham Forest.
A later loan stint at Forest saw Mir fare little better, failing to find the net in 13 games and suffering the ignominy of having one of the club's European Cup winning greats rank him among the worst signings in their history. It was all a bit too much, too soon.
But this hard-running forward, all limbs and appetite, went out and carved a top-level career out for himself, nevertheless. His 13 goals for a struggling Huesca in the 2020/21 season put him among the top 10 scorers in La Liga and earned his move to Sevilla.
There, he hit double figures again in his first season before scoring against Manchester City in the Champions League in his second. It became acrimonious in his third as he sought a route back to Valencia but he returns to the club as a more rounded player.
"Of course. I have changed a lot since I was a kid, this is life, this is sport. I have had a lot of teammates and a lot of coaches and I learned a bit along the way. It is difficult to explain but I grew up. My mentality, my confidence, I learned it out there on the pitch."
He talks of the people showing him "incredible love" - evidenced by the cheers with which he was greeted as he ran out to be introduced to the crowd and the passion with which they responded by yelling his surname each time the announcer encouraged it.
But this desire to see one of their own succeed in white reveals just as much about Valencia's yearning as it does Mir's abilities. There was similar enthusiasm for Sergi Canos, a boyhood Valencia fan, when he arrived from Brentford last summer.
The Valencia that Canos had watched growing up, cheering on with his father during their title-winning season in 2002, is gone. Even the Valencia that Mir joined a decade later, the third best team in Spain, looks like a glorious one in comparison.
The new stadium is still in the planning, half-built across the city. The team finished ninth last season and that could reasonably be regarded as a triumph given their flirtations with relegation prior to that. A decade of owner Peter Lim has worn folk down.
While Mir talks of coming home, the supporters - as they have done for almost eight years now - bring banners calling for Lim to go home. If that is uneasy language to direct at the Singaporean businessman, it is also ironic - he is rarely there anyway.
Managers have come and gone, but Lim has at least happened upon one capable of galvanising support. Ruben Baraja is a legend, his face emblazoned outside the ground and his presence everywhere inside it. The cheers for him are louder than for the players.
A combative midfielder in his playing prime, Baraja was an integral part of Rafa Benitez's side that became arguably the strongest in Europe. Mir talks of the team being "more recognisable now" and the "double sessions" under the coach. Fans respond to that.
Baraja harks back to a time when Valencia ruled and with anger at the ownership showing no signs of abating, he is a coach who offers a semblance of unity. The connection he brings is vital. His own connection with Mir also offers hope. The pair go way back.
It was Baraja who was in charge of the youth team when Mir scored 21 goals, signalling his potential. Both pushed for this reunion. "The coach is very important to me, he gives me the confidence that I am a very important player for the team," explains Mir.
"This is one of the big reasons why I am here. I need to do my best and take this opportunity, get back my confidence, and the coach is working with me a lot on that. I tried to return before but the time is now. I need to keep improving. It is up to me."
If that sounds simple, the future for Valencia is more complicated. Mir talks of this team being a family, even floats the possibility of European qualification, a first step back towards where Valencia - still the fifth most successful club in Spain - truly belong. We will see.
Inside Mestalla, each major trophy is recognised on a banner that spans the stands, a reminder that every decade since the 1940s has brought silverware. But as this one nears its midpoint, the next trophy feels a long way off. They do not count the Trofeu Taronja.
