Las Palmas leader Kirian Rodríguez reaches new heights after cancer recovery

Photo: Gabriel Jimenez Lorenzo/AFP7/Shutterstock

“Life is a rollercoaster,” Kirian Rodríguez said. When second-division Las Palmas began their pre-season preparations last summer, the midfielder told them something was wrong: he was tired, didn’t want to eat and couldn’t sleep. His spleen was inflamed, his kidneys hurt, and his calcium levels were very high. Doctors removed a cyst and biopsy results revealed Hodgkin lymphoma, or cancer. It was August 2022 and he was 26 years old. He underwent six rounds of chemotherapy and crossed them off on the calendar. There were pills and injections, he felt weak and his hair was falling out. But the worst thing, he later said, was the fear that he would never be able to play football again, which made him really happy.

This is what makes many people happy, too. “Cancer is something associated with death; I He was supposed to be the strong one,” Kirian told ESPN. The day he announced his illness, he sat smiling at a press conference with his teammates, telling them in a calm, determined voice that broke only once and briefly that he didn’t want to be pitied and that he would still be there. He was still shouting from the stands, still the troublemaker he always was. First of all, he told them he would play again. He was in no rush but set a date. Mentally he had to do this: the fulfillment of a public promise, the fulfillment, the positivism part of the process and the conscious choice. The winter season was the best they had because he would be back.

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Two days later, in the hospital waiting room before his first chemotherapy session, Kirian overheard a woman talking about a football player with the same disease, unaware that she was sitting across from him. He bit his tongue for a moment until he heard him talk about never being able to play again. “signora” he said, “let me at least try.” The treatment continued and so did the training sessions at Barranco Seco, which he had attended every day for ten years; a boy from Tenerife who had joined them as a teenager. His hair gradually returned, and so did his strength. “The day I was healed, “It will be the day when the fourth referee removes the board with my number on it,” he said.

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He completed his chemotherapy course in November 2022; Everything went well for him in January 2023; and then in April the fourth umpire did it. 271 days later, on a Sunday night in Zaragoza, Las Palmas’ number 20 jersey returned to the football field. Kirian Rodríguez Concepción is the best signing they have ever made.

This Saturday afternoon, 258 days from now, Kirian’s numbers rose again. This time he headed in a different direction. Four minutes remained and the captain was done here, handing over his armband and giving a standing ovation. It’s not just that he plays again; plays like this This, in a higher league and better than ever. He had just given a performance, it was so beautiful, a perfect afternoon in almost every way; It was hard to know which moment to choose, which snapshot best expressed everything she was and had become.

Perhaps it was his first goal, a one-minute move that unfolded at his feet: Kirian to Mika Mármol to Kirian to Sergi Cardona to Kirian to Alberto Moleiro to Kirian for the finish, not a shot but another. pass, this time to the goal. open. Or the way he celebrates by pointing to the 20-year-old he mentored who was born in the same town and who fired him. Maybe it was his way of celebrating second place by embracing 19-year-old Canarian Juanma Herzog, who also scored on his debut and burst into tears. Or how he took the third place with a 3-0 win, the attention was again transferred to the player who played the pass, it’s all about Javi Muñoz.

Maybe it was his 65 passes; The moment of complicity with Dani Parejo, a small smile and a word as his opponent hits the bar; The calm authority with which he rules this game and every game seems to have complete control over everything. His power was lightly, almost gently eroded, a power not imposed, the band above all else – and it was there in the moment that stood out the most, in the way the fans stood up for him and the way he fought back. They defend their teammates.

Six days earlier, Las Palmas had been defeated in the Canary Island derby, while Tenerife in the second division had eliminated them 2-0 from the Copa del Rey. Kirian had only played 20 minutes. It was their worst performance of the season and the fans who returned to the boat late at night were furious. Now, after a week had passed and the league victory had been achieved, Kirian approached them, the voice of the fan leader coming towards the stands and saying on the microphone, “be quiet, the captain wants to say something.” There was a silence, and it started.

“We have a very bright bond; We all make a great group,” Kirian told them. “And we all suffer. We go home angry, too. They didn’t deserve most of the insults these kids got. It hurts them, it hurts them, just like it hurts all of you. They cry, too. We gotta stay together. When someone puts four next to us, that hurts them, too. “He puts four with us. We will fall, we will cry, we will do what we have to do. But when we suffer, we will need you more than ever. Today was the day to get back up.” Applause rose from the stands, the reconciliation was completed, and then they began to sing: How Can We Not Love You?

Increasingly. When Kirian played his first match of the season in the 38th week against Zaragoza in April, Las Palmas were losing 1-0. When he came out again, equality was achieved. He also started the next four matches of the season, the last four of which they lost none of them, clinching automatic promotion on goal difference and returning to the first division after six years. “We went up and made many people happy, but the biggest victory was that Kirian became a football player again,” said the club’s manager, García Pimienta.

Sevilla 2-3 Alavés, Las Palmas 3-0 Villarreal, Mallorca 1-1 Celta, Bilbao 2-1 Sociedad, Betis 1-0 Granada, Almería 0-0 Girona, Cadiz 1-4 Valencia Super Cup final Real Madrid 4-1 Barcelona

And what a football player. Kirian had never been there and it took six weeks for Las Palmas to earn their first league victory. When they finally did it against Granada, it was he who scored the winning goal with a superb shot in the 90th minute. In this series at the end of last season they played against Eibar, Cartagena, Alavés and Villarreal B; This Saturday, he scored two goals against Villarreal’s senior team and moved Las Palmas three points below the European table.

“It was a tough week: the cup game hurt us. But this group trains like the best; Incredible band, a pleasure. It is very difficult to find a locker room like ours, with the unity and solidarity we have. When the weekend comes you should enjoy it. I hope we still haven’t found our ceiling,” Kirian said. “Football put us where it put us: on the crest of the wave,” said a full-time voice from the stands at the end of the game.

Kirian is Las Palmas’ top scorer with five goals, but he isn’t; everything, including the experiences that shape him and those around him. Kirian studied psychology and before every game there is a moment for awareness. He is the embodiment of everything they want to be; A small team with the second smallest salary cap in the world. beginning The team that has more ball possession than anyone except Madrid and Barcelona; in particular, he says that if they had taken the shot, they would probably have been defeated by January. Moreover, he insists: In the Canary Islands you grow up with a ball at your feet; Why would you want to change that?

“What can I say about him? “He is a player for whom special feelings are felt,” says García Pimienta. “This was there from the beginning. [But] This season he has taken a step forward in terms of leadership, he plays really well, he wants every ball; “It is never hidden.”

He was involved three times more than Las Palmas’ other midfielders, provided three times as many passes and created twice as many chances. Only one player in the whole of La Liga has completed more passes or made more touches – Girona’s Aleix García – while only two players have completed more passes in the opposition half and only six have had more possession of the ball. “He had problems last year and look at how he plays now: it’s a very good moment and he deserves it,” García Pimienta said.

There really may be no one better this season; There is absolutely no one you would rather see playing. As he set off on Saturday, the coach whose team he destroyed was among those applauding him; Maybe this was the moment. “I wanted to say how happy I am to see him put all this behind him,” Villarreal coach Marcelino García Toral said. Kirian was asked if this was the best moment of his career. “Yes, without a doubt,” he said. “For everything: my family, my people, my group, the island. After what I experienced last year, everything came together. I enjoy it to the maximum because after all, life is a rollercoaster.