Mikel Arteta has played down the idea of David Raya heading back to Spain any time soon, joking that the Arsenal goalkeeper\u2019s next appearance there may only come on holiday.<\/p>\n
Raya has made no secret of his long-term wish to play in La Liga. As he put it: \u201cPerhaps, in the future, I could play for a Spanish club. I\u2019m Spanish and I\u2019d love to play there.\u201d<\/p>\n
That ambition stands out because Raya has never played professional club football in his home country. Born and raised in Barcelona, he began in the youth ranks at UE Cornell\u00e0, which has been owned since April 2026 by Lionel Messi. He left Spain at 16 in 2012, moving to England in search of a career and eventually landing at Blackburn Rovers. After progressing to the first team two years later, he became their starting goalkeeper for the 2017\u201318 and 2018\u201319 campaigns.<\/p>\n
Brentford later spotted his talent, and Arteta judged in 2023 that Raya was the upgrade Arsenal needed over Aaron Ramsdale. Since then, the goalkeeper has collected three Premier League Golden Gloves across the last three seasons and, by Monday night, could be in position to claim the Yashin Trophy at the 2026 Ballon d\u2019Or ceremony.<\/p>\n
Raya has also been a regular presence in Spain squads over the last four years, even if he is not a first-choice international starter. That has brought him both a European Championship and World Cup winner\u2019s medal, yet one major piece remains missing from his r\u00e9sum\u00e9: a spell in La Liga.<\/p>\n
Arteta was not in the mood to encourage an early return. \u201cI think David has to play in Spain at some point … on the beach with his friends in the summer,\u201d the Gunners boss said. \u201cFor the next few years, he needs to play here for Arsenal .\u201d<\/p>\n
That timing matters, because Raya is now into the final two years of his Arsenal contract, which ends in June 2028. He will be just short of 33 when it expires. Arteta\u2019s comments suggest Arsenal may soon try to extend that deal well beyond 2028.<\/p>\n
If Raya does chase La Liga while still at his peak, the decision point may come no later than 2028. Barcelona would appear the natural fit, though the club\u2019s 2025 move for Joan Garc\u00eda complicates that route. Real Madrid and Atl\u00e9tico Madrid could also be possible in time, depending on how the situations around Thibaut Courtois and Jan Oblak develop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta says Raya\u2019s Spain move can wait, with Arsenal likely to keep their goalkeeper longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}