Juventus will arrive in Vigo tomorrow evening to meet more than a rising European opponent. Celta carry the voice of Galicia with them: a club named for the Celtic roots of the city and region, still waiting for the first major title of its 103-year history, but enjoying a period in which local identity, academy work and unlikely individual journeys have brought fresh weight to every match.
Last season’s Europa League quarter-final run gave Celta a wider profile, yet the bond with their surroundings remains central. Claudio Giráldez’s squad includes 16 Spanish players out of 25, and he has on occasions selected nine Spaniards in his starting side. It is a striking contrast with Luciano Spalletti’s Juventus, who began the recent match at Sassuolo with 10 foreign outfield players and goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario as their sole Italian.
Giráldez and a local revival
Giráldez, 38, has been in charge since March 2024, when he replaced Rafa Benítez. A Galician himself, born in a small village on the Portuguese route towards Santiago de Compostela, he had longstanding ties to Celta before taking the senior job. His uncle, Pepe Lemos, who died in 2023, was a notable figure at the club during the 1980s.
His own playing career did not develop as hoped, despite time in the youth systems of Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid, where he crossed paths with Koke and David de Gea. Giráldez has acknowledged that he was responsible for not making the breakthrough. Coaching proved a different route: after successful spells in Celta’s academy and with the B team in Spain’s third tier, he was promoted to the first team.
His proactive, attacking approach quickly prompted the nickname “Celta’s Guardiola”. Detail matters to the young coach, who completed degrees in Physical Activity and Sports Science as well as Journalism before moving into management. He has explained that he wanted to avoid making mistakes.
Aspas remains the club’s reference point
If Giráldez represents the club on the touchline, Iago Aspas remains its defining figure on the pitch. The 39-year-old is Celta’s all-time leading scorer with 224 goals and may be entering the final season of his career.
Celta have already announced plans to name a stand at the redeveloped Balaídos after Aspas. The stadium will be renovated ahead of the 2030 World Cup, while Vigo’s city authorities are due to unveil a statue in his honour next spring.
Aspas entered Celta’s academy at the age of eight and has spent almost all his career in his home region. His only two seasons away came between 2013 and 2015, with Liverpool and Sevilla, where he won the Europa League. Alongside Marcos Alonso, he is the only current Celta player to have won an international club trophy.
Absent voices and unexpected paths
Borja Iglesias is another player whose standing reaches beyond his goals. He is the only Celta footballer ever to have been part of a World Cup-winning squad, although his contribution this summer amounted to one minute during the last-16 tie against Portugal under Luis de la Fuente.
The forward, known as “Panda”, has become especially popular because of his public positions on racism, civil rights and the war in Gaza. Since 2020, he has painted his nails black in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
That stance has made him a target at opposing grounds. In January, after a match in Seville, he was surrounded in the stadium car park while giving a shirt to a supporter and subjected to homophobic and hateful chants from a group of home fans. Iglesias later said he would be far happier to be gay than resemble people “full of hatred” with nothing better to do than insult others after a match.
The response inside Vigo was emphatic. For the following fixture against Rayo Vallecano, more than 5,000 supporters painted their nails, joined by the coaching staff and club president Marián Mouriño. Iglesias will not be available against Juventus because of injury.
His nickname came from the Desiigner song he regularly played in the Celta B dressing room. Another animal-themed story belongs to Pablo Durán, a versatile attacker spotted at Compostela in Spain’s fourth division and known as “the buffalo”. Durán is also injured and will miss the Juventus match.
Williot Swedberg, however, will be present. The Swedish winger once played alongside Juventus defender Rouhi, now on loan at Carrarese, at Brommapojkarna. Celta supporters have dubbed Swedberg an “Erasmus student”, a nod to his uneven form and youthful, slightly bewildered appearance.
There are further links to the wider football world in the squad. Goalkeeper Ionut Radu is remembered in Italy for the costly mistake at Bologna that damaged Inter’s title hopes, while 20-year-old Germain Milla, son of Cameroon great Roger Milla, has been called up for the match.
For Juventus, Vigo is therefore not simply another European stop. It is a meeting with a side shaped by local roots, an academy-bred coach, a hometown record scorer and players whose routes to this stage have rarely been straightforward.
