Real Sociedad are living their best days – with David Silva at the heart

A little after the clock struck 12 on the night when David Silva, 37, ran 10 kilometres, completed more passes, won more possession, made more tackles, created more chances and provided more assists than anyone else; the delirious, noisy night when everybody bounced about and he led his team – the fifth of a career that began 19 years ago and isn’t ending any time soon – to victory over the European champions and the cusp of a Champions League place for the first time in a decade, his manager was asked what exactly they were giving him up in San Sebastián. For a moment Imanol Alguacil paused, then a smile crept across his face. “Our thanks,” he said.

The Real Sociedad coach was not, he insisted, just speaking for everyone here but everyone everywhere: “For all football fans and everyone who loves the game”. Mostly, though, he spoke for the 35,314 people inside the Reale Arena, txuri-urdines like him, who are living the best days of their lives and who stood to applaud as Silva finally departed in the 90th minute of his 907th match, his work done the way only he can do it. Clapping so hard their hands hurt, they accompanied him to the touchline, where Alguacil lifted him in his arms, and then they began bowing before him. “It makes you proud that he is with us,” the coach said.

They never imagined him being here; now they can barely imagine him not being. “One day I was flicking through the papers: ‘David Silva signs for Real Sociedad’. It was a shock,” Nacho Monreal recalled, and Monreal played for Real Sociedad. On the final day of 2019-20 season, Martin Ødegaard told his delighted teammates he was staying for another season; on the eve of the 2020-21 season, though, Real Madrid decided differently, recalling him from