Welcome to the NextGoalWinner Hall of Fame, the most prestigious of all Hall of Fame recognitions. In this section of the website, we will pick out and highlight some of the most incredible players, moments, matches, managers and just about everything in between from the wonderful world of football.

When we say that we will recognise the most incredible, we are talking of course primarily of those players that the young folk refer to by ‘the streets will never forget’. Kicking us off, and becoming the very first entrant to the NextGoalWinner Hall of Fame is Spanish forward Michu in his Swansea City infamous season in 2012/2013. Nearly 10 years ago (I can’t quite believe that), what better time to recognise this superb season that will love long in the memory of Swansea fans.

So, start the celebration, you know the one, and let’s welcome in our first entrant. If you want to nominate another entrant for a future Hall of Fame post, please get in touch @NextGoalWinBlog over on Twitter and we will build up our roster in the prestigious category.

Enjoy.

Before…

March 21st 1986, Miguel Pérez Cuesta was born in Oviedo, Spain, and began his footballing career in 1994 where he signed for the Oviedo youth team, playing for them right the way through to 2003, where at age 17 he was promoted to their senior side. Playing in the lower Spanish leagues for his home side, he made 100 appearances and netted 13 goals before making his way to Celta Vigo B in the 3rd division. It was a successful move up the leagues, in in his one season for the B team, he played 28 games and netted 10 goals. This earnt him the move to the first team, and he finished the 2007-2008 in the Vigo first XI as a regular. He spent the next 3 years at Celta Vigo, playing 101 games and scoring 14 times for the second division side. There was talk of a move to Sporting Gijon in 2010, however this move never came to fruition and he remained at Celta Vigo until 2011 when another move in Spain was completed. At the end of his Vigo contract, he moved to newly promoted Rayo Vallecano where he played a total of 39 games in his first and only season in La Liga, being one of the league’s top scorers with 17 that season.

These impressive jumps through the league and impressive first season in Spain’s top-flight, including braces over the likes of Real Madrid, Osasuna and Sociedad to name a few, earnt him the attention of new Premier League side Swansea City, who had just cashed in on attacking midfielder Sigurdsson, and the £2million move was made. The rest, as they say, is history.

During…

Arriving as the man to play the No.10 role behind the striker, he was actually given the No.9 shirt upon his arrival in Wales, and was used primarily as a striker during his time there (for obvious reasons). It was the beginning of the 2012/2013 season, and for a debut season in a new country in what is regarded as a tough league, he settled fairly quickly.

On the 18th of August 2012, Michu announced his arrival, and pretty much repaid Swansea the £2million, as he netted twice and assisted Scott Sinclair in the 5-0 demolition on opening day against QPR, the definition of a perfect start. He not only was star man for his club on the day, but also the first player to score in the 2012/2013 season. It was much of the same for Michu, as he continued to stay the leagues’ top scorer, netting in the loss to West Ham, and then again in the 2-2 draw with Sunderland. The league scoring continued throughout the whole season, and in total he had scored 18 goals in 35 appearances in the Premier League for that season, in what must surely go down as one of the best debut seasons at a club ever. It wasn’t just in the league where his scoring ability shone, as he netted 73 seconds into his first FA Cup appearance over Arsenal, and scored in the League Cup semi-final win over Chelsea, which took Swansea City to the league cup final. To top off his remarkable season, he then netted the 2nd of a 5-0 demolition of Bradford City in the League Cup final, taking Swansea to their first major honour and a trip to Europe in the 2013/2014 Europa League. His reward for his efforts this season, were the teams’ player of the year award, and supporters’ player of the year to boot. A perfect season for a striker who seemingly couldn’t stop scoring.

After…

Following this remarkable season, he continued at Swansea for the following year, netting only 6 goals in 24 appearances the following year, including 4 in 7 appearances in Europe on what was a great adventure for the Welsh side. For reasons that are quite unknown, things didn’t seem to continue for Michu, and despite his superb season the year prior, he couldn’t hit that same vein of form in the league as Swansea began to struggle with European commitments on top of all other competitions as many sides do in their first European trips. At the end of the 13/14 season, Michu moved on loan to Napoli, which would have been a huge move for the striker, however injury meant he only managed 6 appearances during the season and failed to find the net. After this failed move, he returned to Swansea, where once again for some strange unknown reasons, he failed to get back into the first team, and was released one year ahead of the end of his contract and left without a club, just 2 years after being one of the top strikers in the league.

After leaving Swansea, he returned to Spain to play a season for UP Langreo, and with 12 goals from 17 appearances, returned to his hometown club where he had become investor with Juan Mata and Santi Cazorla. Managing just 1 goal in 28 appearances, he announced his retirement in 2017 aged just 31. In 2018 he became director of football at Langreo before moving onto technical secretary of Oviedo and then onto director of football at Burgos CF in 2019.

Overall, he has had an odd career to say the least, and very unfortunate. Any player capable of hitting 15+ goals in their debut Premier League season, deserves more than being dropped and let go, however the decisions have been made, and to his credit Michu handled himself with professionalism and as we have said several times but we must reiterate, the streets will never forget that remarkable 2012/2013 year, and I’m sure he won’t either.