On loan from them to Celta Vigo for the season, Javi Varas cannot wait to faces Sevilla this Friday.
Shot-stopper Varas agreed a summer switch to Galicians Celta this summer when it became apparent that he would be given the first team football he had hoped for at Sevilla.
“This will be the first time I will face Sevilla. It will be a very special game because I have many friends there and I have good memories from my time at the club,” enthused the goalkeeper, ahead of explaining why there was no clause in his loan move to prevent him playing.
“At the time I said I would want to play but not in a spirit of revenge towards Sevilla or anything like that. I did it for other reasons. I follow the example of [goalkeeper] David Cobeno, when he went on loan to Almeria from Sevilla.
“Cobeno could not play in the game against Sevilla because of such a clause. Diego Alves came into the team, played a good game and look what happened after. That game cost Cobeno his place in the team.”
Cobeno lost his place to Alves, was sent back to Sevilla at the end of his loan and then later released by the Rojiblancos.
There is a similar situation at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan this year, as the man whose arrival prompted Varas’ departure, Diego Lopez, cannot get back into the team, after being sent off earlier in the season and his deputy Andres Palop keeping the No 1 spot ever since.
“He has nothing to prove to anyone,” Varas reflected of the veteran. “He is a great goalkeeper and currently he is in extraordinary form.
“I have been lucky enough to have trained with him, I realise that now. For me, he is the best goalkeeper in the history of Sevilla.”
