Michu: the one-season wonder at Swansea

The season that announced him

Michu arrived at Swansea City in July 2012 for a modest £2 million, signed to fill the gap left by Gylfi Sigurðsson behind the striker in a 4-2-3-1. He was handed the number 9 shirt and began playing as a central striker rather than the attacking midfielder role he'd occupied at Rayo Vallecano.

The debut set the tone. On 18 August 2012, away at Queens Park Rangers, Michu scored twice and set up another in a 5-0 win, the first of his two goals also the first scored anywhere in that Premier League season. He kept scoring through the autumn - against West Ham, against Sunderland - and by the time he came off the bench against Arsenal in the FA Cup third round in January, finding the net just 73 seconds after entering the pitch, he was the story of the season in south Wales.

He scored in Swansea's League Cup semi-final win over Chelsea, then again in the final itself, a 5-0 demolition of Bradford City that gave the club its first major trophy. That goal was his 19th of the campaign. He finished with 22 in all competitions, was named both the club's official Player of the Year and the supporters' choice, and signed a new four-year contract in January 2013 as reward. In December that year Vicente del Bosque said Michu would be included in a Spain squad for the first time; he eventually won his first cap in October 2013, starting a World Cup qualifier against Belarus after David Villa's injury opened a door.

The decline

The following season told a different story. Michu scored in the Europa League qualifiers against Malmö and Petrolul Ploiești in August 2013, but injuries began to limit him for the rest of 2013-14, and he never reproduced his debut-season form in the league.

In July 2014 he moved to Napoli on loan, with an option to make the deal permanent. He made his debut as a late substitute against Genoa in August, but a recurrence of an ankle injury restricted him to six competitive appearances for the Italian club. He hadn't played for Swansea since April 2014, and in November 2015 the two parties agreed to terminate his contract through a financial settlement, with his deal due to expire the following summer anyway.

Michu was subsequently grouped with players like Roque Santa Cruz and Amr Zaki as a "one-season wonder" by sports outlets, a tag built entirely on the gulf between that 2012-13 campaign and everything that came after.

Home, and after

He didn't disappear from football, but he did step down the ladder sharply. After leaving Swansea he joined Asturian amateur side Langreo, then returned to his first club, Real Oviedo, in 2016. He announced his retirement in July 2017, aged 31, citing the state of his right ankle. As recently as 2022 he said he was still living with chronic pain, describing his ankle as that of a 90-year-old despite multiple surgeries.

Michu stayed in the game in other capacities. He became Langreo's director of football in 2018, working alongside his brother Hernán as head coach, before moving into the same role at Oviedo and then at Burgos. In October 2024 he even took one match in interim charge of Burgos's first team, a 5-2 Copa del Rey win over Móstoles, before handing the reins back.