In 2012 I had an audience with the now King of Spain who was announced in the audience chamber as Prince of Asturias which is the title given to the crown prince, i.e., the equivalent of Prince of Wales. We discussed world affairs rather than football. Asturias is in northern Spain and is known for its verdant hills and valleys. In the autumn of 2012, Real Oviedo confronted a winding-up order. The team had become trapped in the regionalised third tier, their treasury empty. They were almost €2million short of what they needed to stay alive, €4million shy of making it to the end of that season. At that point, loyalists galvanised, putting their energies and their names into a huge global share issue. The faces of the campaign would be, above all, Cazorla, his fellow Oviedo academy alumnus Juan Mata, who was fresh from winning the Champions League with Chelsea, and the striker Michu, then scoring freely for Swansea City in the Premier League. Tens of thousand...