Loyalty in football is not extinct! Pérez bailed out of Cadiz and goes two competitions down to help his beloved La Coruña

You don’t just see a gesture like that. They say loyalty is no longer a thing in football today, but Lucas Pérez has denied that. The Cadiz striker has in fact paid off his contract and is leaving La Liga two competitions down to help his beloved Deportivo La Coruña back among the elite.

Deportivo La Coruña have historically been one of the top sides in Spanish football. Its greatest glory came between 1993 and 2004. In that time, they were bronze in La Liga four times, finished second four times and dominated the league in the 1999/00 season.

Then came the relegation, but Deportivo still held their own as an average La Liga club. After two relegations in 2012 and 2014, La Coruña stayed in the top flight for four more years, but then came the sad fall. In the 2017/18 season, they were relegated to the second league, and in the 2019/20 season, they were even relegated to the third league.

There, Depor have been struggling for the third season and are still unable to advance back to at least the second league. And Lucas Pérez, who was born in La Coruña and started out in football, couldn’t watch it anymore.

This season, Cádiz’s top scorer in La Liga was still scoring in the draw with Almeria on Friday, but he was already reporting home on Sunday.

In fact, he cashed in 500,000 euros from his own pocket and returned to Deportivo to help the club with promotion to a higher competition.

“Depor don’t deserve to be where they are. It’s my family, they all support Depor, my friends support Depor. You can’t pay for this with money, the fans love you so much. I hope we can get promoted to the second league and Depor will continue to grow,” Pérez said in an introductory interview.

So he is voluntarily going to play two leagues down, an act little seen in today’s modern football. “The boy is coming home. Thanks for your commitment,” Deportivo tweeted.

Source: Deportivo La Coruña