Once a Red: Iago Aspas, the Red who became a legend

For many Liverpool supporters, Iago Aspas will forever be remembered for one dreadful corner against Chelsea in April 2014.

It was a moment that summed up a frustrating spell at Anfield, but it tells only a tiny part of his story.

The Spanish forward spent just one season with Liverpool, making 15 appearances and scoring a solitary goal. Yet the player who struggled to establish himself under Brendan Rodgers would return to his homeland and become one of the most prolific Spanish forwards of his generation.

Four Zarra Trophies, four La Liga Player of the Month awards, a World Cup goal and a collection of club records followed. His goalscoring achievements would eventually place him in some remarkable company alongside Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema.

Now 39, Aspas is playing the final season of a career that has made him a legend at Celta Vigo.

The boy who saved Celta

Born in Moaña, a fishing town across the estuary from Vigo, Aspas grew up supporting Celta and progressed through the club’s youth system.

His first major contribution to the senior team was extraordinary.

On 6 June 2009, with Celta fighting to avoid relegation from Spain’s second division, the 21-year-old came off the bench against Alavés and scored twice in a dramatic 2-1 victory.

His second goal arrived deep into stoppage time, securing three precious points and helping Celta avoid dropping into the third tier.

For a club already experiencing serious financial difficulties, the importance of those goals was enormous.

Aspas was still relatively unknown outside Galicia, but he had already written himself into Celta folklore.

Three years later, his 23 league goals helped Celta secure promotion to La Liga in 2012. His performances earned him the Segunda División Zarra Trophy as the leading Spanish goalscorer and recognition as the division’s best forward.

He followed that with 12 goals in his first season in the top flight, helping Celta survive another relegation battle.

By then, clubs elsewhere in Europe were taking notice.

Liverpool were among them.

A new beginning at Anfield

Liverpool signed Aspas in June 2013 for a fee reported to be around £7 million.

Brendan Rodgers was assembling an exciting attacking side, and the Spaniard arrived with a reputation for clever movement, technical ability, aggression and an eye for goal.

With Luis Suárez serving a suspension, Aspas was given opportunities during the opening weeks of the season.

His Premier League debut came against Stoke City at Anfield on 17 August 2013.

It was a promising introduction. Aspas provided the pass for Daniel Sturridge to score the only goal in a 1-0 victory, giving Liverpool a winning start to the campaign.

He started four of the opening five league matches, but his opportunities soon became increasingly limited.

Suárez returned from suspension and formed a devastating partnership with Sturridge. Alongside Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling, Liverpool’s attack became one of the most feared in English football.

Rodgers’ side would eventually score 101 Premier League goals that season.

For Aspas, finding a regular place in such a productive attack was always going to be difficult.

A thigh injury in October further disrupted his progress, and by the time he returned, Liverpool’s title challenge was gathering momentum.

His only competitive goal for the club arrived on 5 January 2014, when he converted Raheem Sterling’s cross against Oldham Athletic in the FA Cup.

Liverpool won 2-0, but Aspas would never score for the Reds again.

The corner that followed him

On 27 April 2014, Liverpool welcomed Chelsea to Anfield knowing the Premier League title was within reach.

It was one of the most eagerly anticipated matches at Anfield for years.

Steven Gerrard’s slip allowed Demba Ba to open the scoring shortly before half-time, leaving Liverpool desperately searching for an equaliser.

Aspas was introduced as a late substitute.

During stoppage time, Liverpool won a corner. Rather than delivering the ball into the penalty area, Aspas attempted to play it low towards the edge of the box.

Unfortunately, the pass went straight to Chelsea’s Willian.

The mistake became one of the enduring images of Liverpool’s failed title challenge.

Chelsea subsequently added a second goal through Willian, completing a 2-0 victory.

The corner did not directly lead to Chelsea’s second goal, and it would be ridiculous to blame Aspas for Liverpool losing the title. Nevertheless, it became the moment most supporters associated with his brief Liverpool career.

Speaking to The Guardian in 2017, Aspas acknowledged that the corner had become Liverpool supporters’ lasting memory of him.

He also made an important observation.

“But in football you can’t forever live in the past.”

As things turned out, he had plenty to look forward to.

A return to Spain

Aspas left Liverpool for Sevilla on loan in the summer of 2014.

Although he struggled to establish himself in their league side, he enjoyed an impressive Copa del Rey campaign, scoring seven goals, including hat-tricks in both legs of a tie against Sabadell.

He was also part of Sevilla’s squad that won the Europa League in 2015.

Sevilla subsequently completed his permanent signing before he returned to Celta Vigo that summer.

It would prove to be the defining move of his career.

Back among familiar surroundings, Aspas rediscovered the confidence and consistency that had made him such an important player before his move to England.

He became Celta’s attacking talisman, scoring regularly against some of Spain’s biggest clubs and establishing himself as one of La Liga’s most dangerous forwards.

But what followed was far more than a successful return home.

Aspas would spend the next decade producing performances that placed him among the finest Spanish attacking players of his generation.

Among Spain’s finest forwards

The individual honours tell their own story.

Aspas won the Zarra Trophy, awarded to the leading Spanish goalscorer in La Liga, in three consecutive seasons between 2016-17 and 2018-19.

He scored 19, 22 and 20 league goals respectively during those campaigns, establishing himself as one of the division’s most reliable finishers.

He collected the award again in 2021-22, sharing the honour with Raúl de Tomás after both players scored 17 league goals.

That fourth Zarra Trophy brought him level with David Villa’s record of four awards.

It was a remarkable achievement for a player representing Celta rather than one of Spain’s traditional giants.

Aspas also won La Liga’s Player of the Month award four times, in October 2016, November 2017, April 2019 and December 2020.

His performances earned further recognition when UEFA included him in its Spanish league teams of the season for 2017-18 and 2018-19.

Even as he approached his late thirties, his influence remained considerable. He was selected for the EA SPORTS FC La Liga Team of the Season for 2024-25.

But perhaps the most impressive evidence of his standing comes from the goalscoring records.

In May 2026, Aspas reached 169 La Liga goals for Celta Vigo.

At that point, counting league goals scored for a single Spanish club during the 21st century, only Lionel Messi at Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid and Karim Benzema at Real Madrid had scored more.

That placed him in extraordinary company.

Across La Liga’s longer history, he also ranked among the leading goalscorers for a single club, despite spending his career outside the country’s wealthiest and most successful teams.

There is an important distinction here. Aspas was not competing with Messi and Ronaldo for overall career goals, and his achievements should not be confused with theirs.

Nevertheless, his consistency, longevity and importance to Celta made him one of the outstanding Spanish forwards of his era.

For a player who managed just one goal at Liverpool, it was quite a transformation.

From Liverpool substitute to World Cup goalscorer

His performances eventually earned him international recognition.

In November 2016, at the age of 29, Aspas made his Spain debut against England at Wembley.

He marked the occasion with a superb curling goal as Spain fought back from 2-0 down to secure a 2-2 draw.

It was a memorable introduction to international football, and further recognition of his outstanding performances in La Liga.

Two years later, Aspas represented Spain at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Against Morocco, he scored a clever stoppage-time back-heel that was initially disallowed before being awarded following a VAR review.

The goal secured a 2-2 draw and ensured Spain finished top of their group.

Aspas would finish his international career with six goals in 20 appearances.

For a player who had struggled to get into Liverpool’s starting eleven, becoming a World Cup goalscorer was a remarkable achievement.

The king of Balaídos

Individual awards and international recognition were important, but Aspas’s greatest achievement was arguably what he meant to Celta Vigo.

He became the club’s all-time leading goalscorer and appearance holder, surpassing records that had stood for generations.

His influence extended far beyond scoring goals.

Aspas was the team’s captain, creative inspiration and attacking leader. He helped Celta through difficult periods, including relegation battles, while also inspiring memorable European nights.

In 2016-17, Celta reached the Europa League semi-finals, where they were narrowly eliminated by Manchester United.

Aspas was central to that European campaign, which brought the club within touching distance of a major continental final.

He also continued scoring against some of Spain’s biggest sides, earning a reputation as a player capable of troubling even the strongest defences.

What made his achievements particularly special was his loyalty.

While many successful players move between Europe’s wealthiest clubs, Aspas spent the overwhelming majority of his career representing the team he had supported as a boy.

He had helped save Celta from relegation in 2009, helped win promotion in 2012 and eventually became the most celebrated player in the club’s modern history.

For Celta supporters, he was more than a goalscorer.

He represented the identity of the club itself.

One final season

In May 2026, Aspas confirmed that the 2026-27 campaign would be his final season as a professional footballer.

He signed an agreement keeping him at Celta until 2029, with the understanding that he would spend one more season on the pitch before moving into the club’s sporting structure.

The arrangement means his association with Celta will continue beyond his retirement.

Aspas has previously expressed an interest in recruitment and sporting management rather than pursuing a traditional coaching career.

It seems fitting that a player who has devoted so much of his life to the club should remain involved in shaping its future.

At 39, he is now approaching the end of a career that has taken him from the Spanish second division to Anfield, European competition and the World Cup.

He has won major individual awards, broken long-standing club records and established himself among Spain’s most respected attacking players.

And he achieved almost all of it wearing the shirt of his boyhood club.

What might have been at Liverpool?

Looking back, Aspas was probably the right player at the wrong time for Liverpool.

He arrived with genuine ability, but found himself competing for opportunities during a season in which Suárez and Sturridge were virtually unstoppable.

Rodgers was challenging for the Premier League title and could hardly justify disrupting an attack that was scoring goals for fun.

Aspas needed regular football to reproduce the form that had made him such an important player at Celta.

He never found that rhythm at Anfield.

Speaking to BBC Sport in 2022, he reflected on the difficulty of establishing himself in a side containing so many outstanding attacking players.

He acknowledged that he had hoped for more opportunities, but also recognised the quality of the footballers ahead of him.

There was no bitterness about his Liverpool experience.

He regarded the move as an important part of his development, even if things had not worked out as he had hoped.

And perhaps that is the fairest way to remember his time at Anfield.

Aspas was not a bad footballer who somehow became a good one after leaving Liverpool.

He was already a talented player when he arrived, but his circumstances made it difficult for him to demonstrate his ability.

His subsequent career showed exactly why Liverpool had wanted to sign him in the first place.

Once a Red

For Liverpool supporters, Iago Aspas will always be associated with that unfortunate corner against Chelsea.

But it would be unfair to allow one moment to define a career that produced so much more.

Four Zarra Trophies, four La Liga Player of the Month awards, a World Cup goal, a place in a Europa League-winning squad and records that may stand at Celta Vigo for many years.

He became one of the most productive Spanish forwards of his generation and achieved a level of recognition that few would have predicted during his frustrating season at Anfield.

Liverpool supporters saw only a brief glimpse of his ability.

Celta Vigo supporters were fortunate enough to witness the full story.

And what a story it turned out to be.