So many of the players in Spanish football’s second division have lived incredible lives already.
LALIGA HYPERMOTION, Spanish football’s second division, is one of the most passionate football leagues in the world, with 22 fanbases backing their clubs week in week out and with the players on the pitch giving their absolute all in every game. There is a real mix of footballers, from young rising stars to veterans who already have incredible stories to tell. Let’s, then, take a look at a few of the most remarkable human stories in this competition, the tales behind the talent. Click this link https://a.meridianbet.ke/c/C7pYjz to start gaming and stand a chance of winning big with Meridianbet.
Kirian Rodríguez: Still captaining his club after two battles with cancer
The captain of UD Las Palmas leads his team out each week to do battle, but Kirian Rodríguez also knows the struggle of a much tougher battle: fighting cancer. The midfielder was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 2022 and he was able to overcome it, returning to action and helping his team win promotion to LALIGA EA SPORTS. A relapse followed in 2025, before the Canary Islander was able to return last season after the team fell back down to LALIGA HYPERMOTION.
He revealed as recently as September 2026 that doctors had ruled out another suspected relapse, after a worrying few months. Now, after recently making his 200th appearance for the club, the hope is that he can leave those battles with cancer behind him and fully focus on his primary footballing objective: returning UD Las Palmas to the top flight once again.
Enric Gallego: The former lorry driver who’s scoring goals at 40
Before Enric Gallego made it in the sport, he held all kinds of other jobs to support his semi-professional footballing career. He worked as a lorry driver, a construction labourer and an air conditioning installer, among other jobs, before eventually going full time in football at the age of 27. That was in the third tier of the Spanish footballing pyramid, and he eventually made it to the pro level with Extremadura UD and then finally to LALIGA EA SPORTS, making his top-flight debut with SD Huesca at the age of 32.
Gallego’s professional football career may have started late, but it’s still going. The striker has just turned 40 and is still scoring goals. At CD Tenerife since 2021, the forward bagged a brace against CD Leganés the day after his 40th birthday and doesn’t look like slowing down any time soon.
Álvaro Morata: The ballboy is back
Álvaro Morata is back in Spain this season, having signed with CD Leganés. The man from Madrid is delighted to be home in the capital city, and representing a new club after previously playing for Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid, and even spending time in the Getafe CF academy too.
Curiously, Morata was once a ballboy at the Estadio Butarque during a CD Leganés vs Atlético de Madrid game in 2001. Now he is back at that stadium, but as a player. Signed at the end of the summer window, the 33-year-old has only played four matches so far, but will certainly be one to watch in LALIGA HYPERMOTION this term.
Juan Bernat: No longer training alone
Juan Bernat is one of the most decorated players in LALIGA HYPERMOTION this season, having played for Bayern Munich, PSG and Benfica over the course of his career. However, two operations for pubalgia left him on the outside looking in, training alone and without a team from the summer of 2025 until SD Eibar signed him February of 2026. The Basque club gave the left-back the opportunity to rebuild his fitness and gradually return to competitive football.
Having renewed his contract with Los Armeros in the summer, Bernat is now playing regularly again and helping his new team get off to a great start to the 2026/27 season. Still only 33, there’s plenty of football still in this player who was not so long ago playing alongside Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé at PSG.
Juanjo Nieto: Back home 13 years later
Juanjo Nieto always wanted to return to CD Castellón and this past summer he was able to. The right-back left his hometown club in 2013, when Los Albinegros were in the fourth tier of Spanish football, and he went on to enjoy a career around Spain and in Slovenia.
The opportunity to return home arose this summer, and Nieto played for the team again some 4,983 days after his last appearance. They’re currently flying high in first place in the division, and the veteran would love nothing more than to see his boyhood club reach the top division.
