“Part of the shield is missing, legend”

Hugo Mallo Novegil (Marín, 1991) will not be a one club man. The captain, who arrived at Celtic in the second year of infancy, after the onset of porvir and play a tournament brunette light blue dress, will announce today his departure from the club whose shield he defended for more than two decades; the last fourteen years, in the first team, which he reached in in 2009 and without first going through Celtic B. The only one who has made such a step since then. Hugo leaves as the sky blue player in history with the most games First (309) and third on the all-time sky rankings in all categories (449), immediately behind Manolo and from Jago Aspas.

“It is a special day, part of the shield goes to us. I would like us all to applaud him and send him off as he is, a legend», Iago Aspas commented with a microphone in his hand last Sunday after the save, a match that Hugo followed from the bench. His last minutes in the Celta shirt were a week before, against Cadiz in New Mirandilla. The event is scheduled for this afternoon at Commandwhere the captain will say goodbye in the presence of an important group template and with the president of the entity, Carlos Mourinho, next to His future seems to be far away from La Liga.

»You were always there. Iago’s words to fans, also about Hugo Mallo’s farewell: “The legend is leaving. pic.twitter.com/3gFBFmTPjd

— Grada de Rio (@gradaderio) June 6, 2023

Hugo Mallo, who spent all his youth uploaded in car With his godfather as a taxi driver traveling from Marín to Vigo for training, he received a letter of introduction to the young División de Honor team when they reached the Champions Cup final in 2009 with the help of Guillermo Fernandez Romo.

In the same summer, at the age of 18, he came into contact with the first team. He arrived in Melgaço to do the pre-season with the first team and has already stayed. That first year, with Eusebius Sacristandebuted before Numancia on the first day and played 25 games in the Second League. Then came his confirmation, with Paco Herrera, with promotion and promotion and with Hugo as the absolute protagonist. Playing in silver football, he was a starter in Sat 20 world in Colombia, as one of the candidates for the Golden Ball of the tournament.

His entry into the First League was not entirely happy, because his entry from Cristiano Ronaldo in the match of the King’s Cup, he left him without a half-season a seriously injuredwithout a knee, Marínčanin missed the rest of the season (half the course), but he made up for it the following year by playing 33 games.

For yours the first goal As Celtic, we had to wait for the epilogue of the academic year 14/15. Eduardo Berizzo on the bench, when the winger scored for Espanyol last day. He ended up scoring nine goals in the first division, the last against Osasuna on January 19, 2022 in Balaídos (2-0).

During his eleven seasons in the elite, Hugo Mallo reached his peak in 35 games academic year 18/19, one of the problematic years with three coaches on the bench. On the contrary, his minimum last year was 21 games, five less than the 26 with which the heavenly circle closes.

For a long time, everything indicated that Hugo Mallo would end up at San Mamés as a one-club man, but everything went wrong this season. A man from Marín had an offer to go to English football in the summer of 2018. “He has the offer of his life on the table,” his relatives said at the time, but the captain decided to stay and extend his contract with Celta, which expires on June 30.

First attempt

At the last winter market, Hugo already did move out first whereupon Eduardo Coudet I would like to take that to Brazilian football. Celta then closed the door on him, but months later, it seems the time has come to leave. Today he will live his own the last hours as the captain of the team of his life. Now it remains to know what will be his destination point.

Captain by birth

Guillermo Fernandez Romo

ugo Mallo was a captain from the day he was born. He always had great leadership capacity, with his playing background and with everything that happened around him. He did it in the training phase and later developed it, also in professional football, because it is one thing to show some qualities at a young age, and quite another to show them through 15 years in the elite; that’s great.

It would be useful to say that at that time I thought that I would have such a career in professional football, also, I remember that at that time I had a team with very good players in my hands, it is enough to remember that in that team there were strikers who will now be with to the Spanish team in the final stage of the League of Nations: Rodrigo and Joselu. But of course Hugo Mallo had the potential, the conditions, the instinct to defend and the background to play which is not typical for the category that trains. Namely, already at a young age he had to move to the first team.

As a professional, his evolution was always more, he had his moment where he could even go to the Spanish team and certainly could have been transferred to one of the greats, but as a good Celtic player, his decision was to stay and continue at the club .

Hugo Mallo has some of the best numbers in Celta’s history, playing three-quarters of his career in the First Division. I think the data correlates performance to who he is as a football player. I think there was a very reciprocal relationship between what the footballer gave and what he got from Celticism.