Where is Swansea City sensation Michu now?

‘’I remember we had a meeting when he first signed and Michael Laudrup basically just said, ‘Michu has come in. Wherever he is on the pitch, just pass him the ball.’,’’ said his former teammate Nathan Dyer in an interview with The New York Times. ‘’And we thought, ‘Oh right, we’ve got a Messi on our hands, have we?!’.’’

Michu may not have been Messi, but the impact he had on Swansea in his debut season is one of similar stature. With 22 goals he led his Premier League side to a ninth-place finish and became the football idol of star striker Erling Haaland. Haaland, who was still a kid playing for Norway’s youth team, even posted a photo of him on Instagram where he tagged himself as Michu. 

Even though Michu himself has said that he finds it an honour to be idolised by Haaland, there are similarities to be seen in their playing styles. ‘’It is an honour that he was influenced by me. He’s a fantastic player. I expect him to be a superstar and of course, he is a much better player than I was,’’ said Michu to AS. 

Retirement

After the 2012-13 campaign, Michu’s career was never the same again. In fact, Michu was never the same again. He suffered from so much chronic pain in his right ankle that he eventually retired in 2017 aged 31. Two years after hanging up his boots, he revealed to The New York Times that he had the right ankle of an 80-year-old and that he was still unable to walk on the streets without being in discomfort. 

In 2015, Michu took the drastic decision to play for the Asturian amateur side UP Langreo, where his brother was the head coach. He had an offer from Premier League side Aston Villa but felt like he wouldn’t be able to do himself justice and refused the last chance of a big payday. ‘’I remember in the last year of my contract with Swansea, I had an offer from Aston Villa when Tim Sherwood was manager. They offered me a three-year contract, so much money. But I said no because of the pain. I think, as a person, you have to be honest and honourable. And also, if I’d wanted to stay playing in the Premier League, I’d have done it at Swansea, not Aston Villa,’’ Michu said. 

After one season at Langreo, Michu would come back for one year to return to his childhood club Real Oviedo, which played in Spain’s second tier at the time, before officially ending his football career. 

 

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What does Michu do now?

During his football career, Michu was already studying for his coaching badges as he always knew he wanted to be a coach and stay involved within the industry. He also followed a master’s program in Sports Direction at the Spanish Football Federation. 

Instead of managing a team, however, Michu was appointed as a director of football at Langreo in June 2018. In April 2019, he became the technical secretary of Real Oviedo and since December 2019 he has been the director of football at Burgos CF. This year, he extended his contract at the club that plays in the Segunda División until 2027. 

Even though he’s very content in his current role. We might, one day, see Swansea’s legendary player return to the place where he made a name for himself.  ‘’I want to come back to work in the UK one day. You never know the team but if I can come back to Swansea, even better. If I am with my friends having a beer, they can’t understand why I was so happy in Swansea. But I felt at home there. It was a city like my city in Spain,’’ Michu said to The New York Times. 

 

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