Kirian Rodríguez, the leader of Las Palmas, reaches new heights after recovering from cancer

Photo: Gabriel Jimenez Lorenzo/AFP7/Shutterstock

“Life is a rollercoaster,” said Kirian Rodríguez. When second division Las Palmas reported for pre-season last summer, the midfielder told them something wasn’t right: he was tired, didn’t want to eat and couldn’t sleep. Her spleen was inflamed, her kidneys were injured and her calcium levels were too high. Doctors removed a cyst and the results of the biopsy showed Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer. It was August 2022 and he was 26. He underwent six chemotherapy sessions, crossing them out on a calendar. There were pills and injections, he felt weak and his hair fell out. But the worst thing, he said later, is the fear that he will never play football again, and that is what makes him happy.

It is what makes many other people happy too. “Cancer is associated with death; me to be the strong one,” Kirian told ESPN. The day he announced his illness, while sitting smiling in a press conference surrounded by his teammates, he told them in a calm and steady voice that only broke once and briefly, that he did not want pity and that he would still be there, still shouting from the stands, still the pain in the ass it always was. Above all, he told them he would play again. There was no rush, but he set a date. Mentally, he needed: a public promise to be fulfilled, to be done, the positive part of the process and to be consciously chosen. The winter window would make the best of them because he would be back.

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Two days later, in the hospital waiting room before his first chemo session, Kirian overheard a woman talking about that footballer who had the same illness, unaware that he was sitting opposite. He bit his tongue for a while until he heard her comment on how he was unlikely to play again. “Señora,” he said, “at least let me try.” The treatment continued and the training sessions at Barranco Seco, where he went daily for ten years, were done by a kid from Tenerife who joined them as a teenager. His hair slowly returned, his strength too. “The day I will be cured is the day the fourth official puts up the board with my number,” he said.

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In November 2022, he completed his chemo cycle; in January 2023, he was given the all-clear; and then, in April, the fourth officer did. Sunday night in Zaragoza, 271 days later, stood No. 20 of Las Palmas west of a football field. Kirian Rodríguez Concepción, the best signing they could have ever made.

This Saturday evening, 258 days later, Kirian’s number went up again. This time, he went back in the opposite direction. There were four minutes left and his work was done here when he took the captain’s hand and made his way to standing surgery. Not only did he play again; is that he is playing as this, in a higher and better league than ever before. He had just performed, on such a good evening, almost perfect in almost every way, it was difficult to know which moment he would choose, which picture would best express all that he is and all that he is now.

It might have been the first goal, a minute-long move coming to his feet: from Kirian to Mika Mármol to Kirian to Sergi Cardona to Kirian to Alberto Moleiro to Kirian to finish, not so much another shot and pass , this time into the net. Or the way he celebrated it, telling the 20-year-old, who was born in the same town, who is leading him and who set him out. Perhaps it was the way he celebrated the latter, embracing Juanma Herzog, the 19-year-old Canarian, like him, who had just scored on his debut and was in tears. Or as he swept in the third in a 3-0 win, the spotlight once again ceded to the player who played the pass, all under Javi Muñoz.

It may have been his own 65 pass; the moment of complicity with Dani Parejo, the little smile and a word when his opponent hit the bar; the calm authority with which he ran this game and every game, the total control he seems to have over everything. His strength is worn lightly, almost smoothly, without being imposed, the group above all – and it was also in the moment that stood out the most, in the way the fans stood up him and how he stood up for him. them, protecting his partners.

Six days earlier, Las Palmas had won a derby against the Canary Islands, second division Tenerife, knocking them out of the Copa del Rey 2-0. Kirian only played 20 minutes. It was their worst performance of the season and when they got back on the boat late at night, the fans were furious. Now, a week after the series victory was secured, Kirian approached them, the voice of the fan leader on the microphone declaring “quiet, the captain wants to say something” as he approached the stands. There was fun, and he began.

“We have a great bloody bond; All of us make a great group together,” Kirian told them. “And we all suffer. We go home pissed off too. A lot of the insults these lads got they didn’t deserve. It hurts them, it hurts, just like it hurts all of you. They cry too. We must stay together. When someone puts four past us, they put four past us. We will fall, we will cry, we will do what we have to do. But when we suffer, we need you more than ever. Today was a day to rise again.” From the stands there was applause, reconciliation complete, and then they began to sing: How Can We Not Love You?

Well, a lot. When Kirian came on against Zaragoza in April, playing his first game of the season 38 weeks in a row, Las Palmas were losing 1-0. By the time he left again, they were balanced. He started the next four games of the season which were also the final four of the season and they did not lose any of them, gaining automatic promotion on goal difference, returning to the first division six years later. “We went up and made a lot of people happy but the biggest victory was Kirian being a footballer again,” said the club’s manager, García Pimienta.

Sevilla 2-3 Alavés, Las Palmas 3-0 Villarreal, Mallorca 1-1 Celta, Bilbao 2-1 Sociedad, Betis 1-0 Granada, Almería 0-0 Girona, Cádiz 1-4 Valencia Super Cup final Real Madrid 4-1 Barcelona

And what a footballer. Kirian was never there, and it took Las Palmas six weeks to win the first division. When they finally did, against Granada, it was he who scored the winner – with a superb shot in the 90th minute. In that run at the end of last season, they had played Eibar, Cartagena, Alavés and Villarreal B; this Saturday he scored twice against the first team Villarreal, moving Las Palmas to three points out of a European place.

“It was a tough week: the cup game hurt. But this group trains the best; it’s an incredible group, a pleasure. It is very difficult to find a dressing room like ours, with the unity we have. When the weekend comes you have to enjoy it. I hope we haven’t found our ceiling yet,” said Kirian. “Football is what put us where it puts us: on top of the wave,” came the voice from the stands at the end of that exchange at full time.

With five goals, Kirian is Las Palmas’ top scorer, but that’s not all; everything is there, including the experiences that shape him and those around him. Kirian has studied psychology, and there is a moment for mindfulness before every game. It is the embodiment of everything they want to be, a tiny team with the second smallest salary limit i primera who have more of the ball than anyone except Madrid and Barcelona – especially because, he says, if they attacked it they would probably be down by January. Furthermore, he insists: in the Canaries you grow up with a ball at your feet; why would you ever want to change that?

“What can I say about him? He is a player with a special feeling,” says García Pimienta. “That’s been there since the beginning. [But] this season he has taken a step forward in terms of leadership, he plays very well, he wants every ball; he never hides.”

He was involved in more than three times as many plays as the rest of Las Palmas’ midfielders, provided three times as many passes and created twice as many chances. Across the whole of La Liga, only one player has completed more passes or been involved in more – Girona’s Aleix García – only two players have completed more passes in the opposition’s half, and only six have had more possession get back more. “He had the problem last year and now look at how he’s playing: it’s a sweet moment and he deserves it,” said García Pimienta.

It is possible that no one will be better this season; there’s definitely no one you’d see playing. As he made his way out on Saturday, the coach who had taken his team apart was among those who praised him; more than any other, perhaps that was the moment. “I wanted to express how happy I am to see him leave everything behind,” said Villarreal manager Marcelino García Toral. Is this the best moment of your career, Kirian was asked. “Yes, of course,” he said. “For everything: for my family, my people, the group, the island. Everything has come together after what I lived last year. I’m enjoying this as much as I can, because life is too expensive in the end.”