Stacy Boit,
Saturday afternoon. Kick-off approaching. Preparations complete. Crowd filing in. Excitement building.
David Raya fastens his gloves and breathes out.
But this is not the Champions League final. This is Moss Rose, home of National League side Macclesfield Town and a teenage Spanish goalkeeper is embarking on a journey that will lead him to the biggest stage in European football.
In front of fewer than 1,500 spectators, Raya was part of a Southport side beaten 3-0 by Macclesfield in September 2014.
Now aged 30, he is set to become only the third person to make the journey from non-league football to the Champions League final when Arsenal face holders Paris St-Germain on Saturday.
Raya will join Steve Finnan and Chris Smalling in achieving that feat.
Full-back Finnan, who lifted the 2005 title with Liverpool, had earlier played for Welling United in the National League, while centre-back Smalling turned out for Maidstone before going on to be an unused substitute when Manchester United lost the 2011 final to Barcelona.
Even people who have witnessed the journey from a 19-year-old making his first-team breakthrough – after joining Southport on loan from Blackburn Rovers – have struggled to envision Raya’s rise.
Paul Carden, Southport’s former assistant manager, said: “I don’t think anybody could have predicted or scripted it. You wouldn’t be 100% surprised, but you wouldn’t have put a bet on him.”
What makes Raya’s journey so unique is that until he was 16 he was playing in the youth teams of Cornella, a Third Division club based on the outskirts of Barcelona.
But he would swap the small commuter district for Blackburn because the two clubs had a partnership which involved young Spanish footballers travelling to the Lancashire club for trials.
By the time Raya left his home town, he wasn’t a starting goalkeeper for the academy and, when he arrived at Blackburn in 2012 – the season of their relegation from the Premier League – he would face similar struggles because he had Paul Robinson, Jake Kean and Simon Eastwood in front of him.
So after two years in England, Raya made another brave decision in search of first-team football, dropping down a further three leagues to join struggling fifth-tier side Southport, where he experienced the harsh realities of senior football in a temporary four-month spell.
More poor results followed the Macclesfield loss as Martin Foyle was sacked as manager and Gary Brabin took charge along with Carden, who joined from Blackburn’s academy.
“I obviously knew him a little bit as he’d see me about as an academy coach, but quickly you realised he had really good ability,” added Carden.
“You’ve got to give credit to him because he went on a bit of a pathway that not many young lads want to take – and they don’t want to go out and get dirty in non-league.
“They want the niceties of development football and playing at nice grounds on nice pitches or even training grounds. Some lads will be 21 and they won’t have played a real first-team game at any level, but they will have more than 100 appearances in development football.”
Raya used to train three days a week at Southport and then do extra work with Blackburn when his loan club had days off. When he was training with the Merseyside club at Ormskirk’s Edge Hill University, the players used to joke he was good enough to play outfield for them.
That ball-playing ability in a goalkeeper was unheard of at many levels in English football at that time, but Raya was confident enough to showcase his talent in the most stressful situations.
Carden said: “We were really struggling at the time and it was a lot of pressure to win points and win games to stay in the league and we played Kidderminster away, where we won 1-0.
“There was a ball that came back to him, late on in the game, and you’d expect a keeper just to shell it back up the pitch, because he’s getting closed down by one or two forwards, and he’s chopped one of them then just casually passed it out to the full-back.
“We were hearts in mouth in the dugout, but he’s obviously not fazed by it and just got on with it.
“A young Spanish player going into the National League could quite easily have been played on, but whenever teams did, he always came out the other side because of his ability and his confidence.
“It wasn’t arrogance. It was just huge confidence and he had a mindset where he was always determined and very humble.”
During his Southport spell, Carden was aware opposition clubs would try to exploit his 6ft height with high balls and extra physicality, but the Spaniard had traits that “defied” his height.
Raya’s biggest test came in his final game for the club when the Sandgrounders visited Championship side Derby County in the FA Cup third round.
He made multiple fine saves to keep the Rams at bay, and was beaten only by a stoppage-time penalty. At the final whistle, Raya left the pitch in tears after a performance that highlighted his potential.
Carden recalled: “He was bitterly disappointed, but we all were, so that kind of tells you how much he felt at the time for the lads and the club. He was certainly part of the culture in non-league and the dressing room.
“He made some saves in that game where we thought he’s definitely at the level. You could have put him in goal for Derby and he wouldn’t have been out of place.”
Raya returned to Blackburn and made appearances in the Championship, but had to wait until the club’s relegation to League One to become first choice in 2017.
He proved instrumental for Rovers, instantly helping them to return to the second tier.
Jayson Leutwiler was back-up goalkeeper to Raya at Blackburn and saw the match-winning saves that have become so regular during the Spaniard’s time at Arsenal.
“He was able to make saves that would make you think, ‘wow this is a shot that one out of 10 times he would have saved it’,” said the former Canada international.
“But when it happens four, five or six times over the season, that’s just not a coincidence.”
Leutwiler played across England’s lower football leagues and believes playing at that level has great advantages to developing goalkeepers.
“You get exposed to smaller crowds, you get exposed to different pressures, they are difficult leagues, it’s more physical, you have to adapt a bit more,” added the 37-year-old.
“You could go to a great football pitch on a Saturday and the weekend after the conditions aren’t as great, maybe a smaller crowd and it only helps you to be more resilient when it gets to a bigger game at any level.”
Raya was then signed by Brentford for £3m in 2019, before Arsenal completed a £27m deal five years later, after a loan spell.
From that disappointing debut at Macclesfield, he has gone on to shine for club and country – being part of Spain’s victorious 2024 Euros squad and helping Arsenal win the Premier League for the first time in 22 years.
Now the Gunners, and Raya, will cap a dream double if they overcome PSG in Budapest, and leave his old colleagues proud of his achievements.
Carden said: “He had that confidence and that determination, but it didn’t stop him from being a good team-mate.
“Everybody who crossed paths with him at his time at Southport is delighted. It is a real credit to him.
“I don’t think anyone could have written that tale, which is why it’s such a good one.”
