David Raya: ‘When you lose a Champions League final it destroys you inside’

The Arsenal and Spain goalkeeper discusses being bullied by 35-year-olds in the English fifth tier, winning the Premier League and competition in the Spain squad

LOOKING AFTER NO 1: Spain's David Raya at the team base in Baylor School, Chattanooga, Tennessee. Pic: Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images

“No, no, there’s someone else,” David Raya says, leaping out of his chair at Spain’s training camp in Chattanooga, Tennessee, pulling his phone from the wash bag sitting on the floor and starting to scroll. Ah, look, here it is,” he says eventually, reading from the screen: “‘… the goalkeeper, who played in yesterday’s match, was at Southport on loan from Oxford United…’ Yeah, Max Crocombe. I think that is right” 

And so then there were four, another name to add to the list. Peter Withe, Stan Mortensen, him, and now New Zealand’s No 1: the men who played for Southport and went to a World Cup.