Dani Raba sparks comeback: Aguirre’s first XI and a goal vs Santander

Dani Raba, a Valencia forward, returned to the starting XI in Gustavo Aguirre’s debut and delivered immediately: he scored before the second minute against Racing Santander, just under 100 seconds after kickoff, as reported by MARCA.

The shift was dramatic. Over the last natural year, Raba played only 88 Liga minutes and spent stretches completely out of the starting plans. Last season he started the campaign and again briefly shortly after, but after that he stopped breaking into the XI, with most appearances limited to the bench. This season his contribution had also been minimal: eight minutes versus Deportivo when the game was already effectively over.

A fast turnaround

Valencia pushed him to look for an exit in the summer, but Raba still had two years left on his contract and chose to stay. After scoring, he didn’t celebrate because he was playing against his youth club, and he also apologized to the stands. “I’m happy to be back playing. From now on we’ll see another Valencia… We’ve had little time to work and little by little we’ll improve. I saw the defender crossing into my path and I knew I had to wait—that was best for the team,” he said.