Ayoze Pérez does like a nice cup of tea. One November day last season, in the hours before Real Betis played Mallorca, a friend of his had a feeling. “He said to me: ‘You’re going to score – and as the game is at tea-time, you should celebrate by drinking one’,” the former Newcastle and Leicester forward, explained. “I thought: ‘Well, at least it’s original’. It’s something fun, different.” Something his too, a challenge to be met. And so there he was, a little after half past five lifting a cup to his lips, the year of his life under way.
Almost exactly 12 months on, it came to an end that was premature just when it looked like it would be perfect. Nothing though will take 2024 from him, or the decade that took him there, Pérez’s long journey home. And at least he did get home, if only for a little while. That November day, Pérez met the challenge, raising a cup and saucer in celebration. The next week, in the derby, he did it again. Then again and again. Seven more times last season and 10 this, in just nine games. He did it the first time he played for Spain and the last time as well, in Copenhagen on Friday, success measured in tea: a symbol of a journey which brought him back to where it all began, in front of his people.
