This season marks 20 years since Arsene Wenger’s ‘Invincibles’ won the Premier League title without losing a single game. To honour the anniversary, Arsenal sent one of their current home shirts, with the Invincibles’ unbeaten record stitched into the sides, to every member of Wenger’s illustrious squad. Each shirt had the player’s name and number emblazoned on the back: “Henry 14”, “Bergkamp 10”, “Vieira 4”, and so on.
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There was one shirt, of course, that could not be delivered: No 9, belonging to Jose Antonio Reyes. The Spaniard will be the one Invincible tragically absent from this season’s celebrations, having died in a car accident in 2019. He was 35.
This season’s Champions League draw threw up a pair of ties pitting Arsenal against Sevilla, the club where Reyes began his career and where he always felt most at home. On the eve of the game at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in October, manager Mikel Arteta presented Sevilla’s president with a bouquet of flowers as a symbol of the two clubs’ shared grief. For Arteta, this was a personal loss — he and Reyes roomed together while representing Spain’s youth teams.
And then, on the day of the game, Arsenal executive Tim Lewis handed over this season’s commemorative shirt, with “Reyes 9” on the back. The shirt is expected to be housed in Sevilla’s club museum. In exchange, Sevilla gave Arsenal a shirt of their own, again with Reyes’ name inscribed.
🔟 ❤ 9⃣@Arsenal 🤝🏽 #SevillaFC
Arteta and Julen.
For you, José Antonio Reyes.pic.twitter.com/CqvCgfee7P— Sevilla FC (@SevillaFC_ENG) July 30, 2022
Arsenal’s sporting director Edu was one of Reyes’ team-mates in the Invincibles team. “When we play against Sevilla, it’s impossible not to remember Jose,” Edu tells The Athletic. “There are sad moments, but lots of happy memories too: talking, laughing together. He’s always in our memories.
“He’s part of our history, he’s part of our team, our dressing room. He was part of some of our best moments in 2004.
“When we gave the shirt or when Mikel makes his presentation to Sevilla’s president, it’s a little token, a way to keep alive those amazing moments. It comes from our heart.
“It’s not always easy to talk about it, but we have to. We have to keep his memory alive. It’s beautiful.”
Seville is a tourist hotspot but few visitors take a south-easterly train to visit nearby Utrera. Consequently, it remains largely unaffected by tourist trends — the locals retain their traditions, their customs, their attitudes. Utrera is described by those who know the area as quintessentially Andalusian, the cradle of flamenco and bullfighting.
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The journey from Seville to Utrera takes you through fields of golden sunflowers, scarlet poppies and bountiful olive groves. White storks whirl overhead, before finding a perch on an abandoned monastery or dilapidated castle.
Utrera is an old farming town, the architecture a muddled jigsaw of styles and periods, each a homage to residents of the past.
On Calle Nueva, there is a plaque testifying to the arrival of the first Gypsies in Utretra in 1600. They remain there to this day, and in some force. The Andalusian and Romani cultures are now so intertwined as to be almost inseparable — and nowhere more so than in Utrera. Reyes’ ancestors hailed from the Punjab, and the footballer was fiercely proud of his gypsy identity.
“Gitaneria” is a word the locals use here with affection. In other parts of the country, it can be more pejorative. There is no direct translation, but a Spanish-English dictionary will offer terms such as “wheedling”, “cajolery”, “flattery”. “The nearest accurate translation of the word would be “gypsyism, which refers to the arts, habits and practises of being a gypsy”, according to author Tony Bryant.
In flamenco, a form of dance indelibly associated with the gypsies of Andalusia, it refers to the flick of the wrist, the sway of a hip, the raise of an eyebrow — a captivating quality that marks gypsy performers out above the rest.
Even so, it is unusual to hear it applied in a sporting context. Yet when asked to describe Reyes’ style, a local barman does not hesitate: he played with “gitaneria”.
Not all athletes are artists, but Reyes was — and his breathless, slaloming style made him one of the most captivating talents in Europe.
Reyes was born into humble beginnings — 98 per cent of Spain’s gypsies live below the poverty line. Stories abound of his father Francisco, a former electrician, having to bail water out of the family home every time it rained. The young Jose Antonio never took to school, despite teachers regularly imploring the family to take his education seriously. His father would joke he only ever attended to organise football matches.
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He loved to play “futbol sala” (indoor five-a-side), but the vast majority of the young Reyes’ skills were honed playing in the alleyways of Utrera.
“In Brazil, we’d call him a street footballer,” says Edu. “The way he played, his behaviour, the way he talked to people. A player that comes from the street is not scared to play football, to go forwards. Whether they’re against Chelsea, Manchester United, anybody, they will play their game. He was brave enough to play against anyone.”
Reyes was accepted into the Sevilla academy aged 10, and left school at 14 without much formal education. Sevilla took responsibility for improving Reyes’ literacy, as well as arranging sessions with a psychologist and a speech therapist, in an attempt to curb his impenetrable Andalusian accent. The talent was evident immediately.
“He was very slim, very dark, with long hair like Mowgli, the boy from The Jungle Book,” says Jose Maria del Nido Carrasco, the vice president of Sevilla. His father was president when Reyes was in the academy. “We have always said that he is the greatest talent that has been created on the road to Utrera. I remember even when he was very young, he skipped age categories because they were too easy for him.”
By 14, Reyes had made a friendly appearance with the first team and been top scorer and player of the tournament at Nike’s prestigious Premier Cup for under-15s. Scouts across Europe were alerted to his potential.
“I first saw Jose Antonio in 2002 in Sevilla’s youth team,” says Arsenal’s former head of recruitment Francis Cagigao. “He was quick and mobile, with a great left foot. He had extraordinary talent.
“I started to follow him until he made his competitive debut in the first team. Shortly after that, I had a conversation with Arsene Wenger, David Dein and Steve Rowley, in which I made a recommendation to sign the player.
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“At the time, it would only have cost Arsenal compensation, as he didn’t have a professional contract.” Arsenal hesitated, and the opportunity passed them by.
At 16, Reyes became the youngest player to play in a competitive game for Sevilla’s first team. The secret of his talent was out. He swiftly earned the nickname of “la Perla” — the Pearl.
As Reyes’ reputation grew, so did interest in prying him away from Seville. Arsenal and Wenger were always at the head of the queue. In January 2004, when Reyes was 20, they finally got their man. In the end, it was financial pressures that broke the Spanish team’s resolve.
“The sale was necessary given the economic situation the club was in, as it had accumulated losses of more than €40million (£35m; $43m at today’s rates),” explains Del Nido Carrasco. “We sold him for €22.5m — it was the biggest sale in the history of Sevilla.
“It was a complicated exit and very criticised. Sevilla fans were upset. There was a huge uproar but the club needed money.
“And it was very hard for Jose, too, because he was a happy guy, very family-oriented; he lived in a little nucleus with his parents, his brothers, his cousins. It was very difficult to leave Seville and go to London.
“We even had to talk to him and explain that he had to do Sevilla a favour and go to a foreign club because we needed the money. He understood even if the situation was not comfortable for him.”
As a tearful Reyes was driven away from Seville, devastated fans banged on car windows and besieged the stadium. David Dein described the scene as “extraordinary, almost frightening. He’s worshipped in Seville. As the car was driving out, people were jumping in front of it to stop us moving”.
Sevilla’s then-president Jose Maria del Nido called the sale of Reyes “the saddest thing we’ve ever had to do”, but said that “the offer was out of this world”.
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In a statement on his website, Reyes said, “I am the happiest man in the world at this moment and, at the same time, the saddest.” That juxtaposition has always been a feature of the Reyes story.
Arsenal unveiled Reyes on a cold January day in 2004. “I know there are two daily flights to Sevilla,” he told the assembled journalists. “Every time I have the chance I will get the fastest plane to get there. But I am sure I will adapt here. To start with, Arsenal have the same colours as Sevilla, red and white. That helps.”
When asked if he could be the team’s next great star, Reyes displayed his quick Andalusian wit. “‘Star?’,” he said. “I can see only clouds here!”
Edu knows the value of a January signing — in his role as Arsenal sporting director, he sanctioned deals for Leandro Trossard, Jakub Kiwior and Jorginho as the team pushed for last season’s title — and recalls the lift Reyes’ arrival gave the squad.
“In that season, we were playing in a lot of different competitions — Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup,” he explains. “We were always saying, ‘We need a player who can come in and help us’, that was the conversation in the dressing room. And then Jose arrives.”
Reyes began a period of acclimatisation — literally. One of his first phone calls home was to request more jumpers and coats. The Spaniard’s family soon joined him in north London; parents Francisco and Mari, brother Jesus, and eventually his then-girlfriend Remedios. They carved out a little corner of Andalusia in Cockfosters. There was a painting of Christ hung on the wall and an Iberian ham on the table.
For the young Cesc Fabregas, the Reyes’ north London home provided a refuge. “I will never forget when you and your family welcomed me at your home on my first Christmas in England, when I was alone and 16 years old,” wrote Fabregas after Reyes’ passing. “They took him in,” confirms Del Nido Carrasco.
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On the pitch, it was a difficult start — Reyes scored an own goal on his full debut. Del Nido Carrasco describes it as a period of “brutal professional growth” for the young attacker.
But within a month of joining, a fifth-round FA Cup tie against Chelsea lit the touchpaper for his Arsenal career. Wenger’s team were trailing to an Adrian Mutu strike when Reyes unleashed a 25-yard rocket into the far top corner. A strike “right out of Thierry Henry’s book”, according to BBC commentator John Motson. Five minutes later, the Spain international had added a second, side-footing home from a Patrick Vieira pass. Reyes was mobbed by jubilant team-mates. A new star was born.
“It was a beautiful goal,” says Edu. The Brazilian had a good view of it, having supplied Reyes with the pass before the strike. “He got a lot of confidence from that, and then we started from there. We all said, ‘This is the guy we needed’.
“He gave us that injection of energy. Someone came who didn’t need time to adapt — boom, straightaway, he started to perform. Everybody needs time, but Jose didn’t need anything. I’m 200 per cent sure he helped us finish the season the way we did.”
Although Reyes was not a regular starter in the remainder of the 2003-04 season, he still played a significant role in ensuring the team remained unbeaten, scoring in two of Arsenal’s final three games of the season.
He struck up good relationships in the dressing room, especially with Spanish speakers such as Edu and Lauren. “We clicked straight away,” recalls Edu. “We had a similar style. Brazilian players normally come from a simple, poor life, and he had a similar story.
“He was very human. He came from a poor family, worked hard his whole life to get to the first team. He was simple, humble, good to be with. He was quite funny sometimes, because we’d always say, ‘You have to learn English’, and he would just say, ‘Too difficult, too difficult!’”
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Reyes began to feature more prominently at the start of the 2004-05 season. He was man of the match in the Community Shield dismantling of Manchester United, and scored the fourth goal as Arsenal came from behind to beat Middlesbrough 5-3. The broadcast pictures had barely stopped showing replays of Robert Pires’ equaliser when Martin Tyler blurted out: “Here they come again… it’s REYES!”
The Spaniard flicked the ball between his legs, leaving Michael Reiziger in a heap on the floor, before smashing a right-footed shot into the far top corner. Football with gitaneria.
Arsenal’s unbeaten run ended at 49 — and at Old Trafford. When Arsenal travelled to face Manchester United in October 2004, Sir Alex Ferguson’s men were determined to stop them from reaching ’50 Not Out’ by any means necessary. Reyes found himself on the end of several punishing challenges.
“I had to get physical,” wrote Gary Neville in his autobiography. “I had to make Reyes lose his confidence. If there were question marks about him, they were over his temperament. It was my job to expose that weakness.”
The football folktale is that Reyes was never quite the same after this bruising encounter. But this was a player who had been kicked since dribbling over cobbles in Utrera. As his bright start to life at Arsenal began to fade, the real pain inhibiting him was a pronounced homesickness.
Reyes was not a troublemaker. He was teetotal and frequently went to bed before 10 o’clock. The only idiosyncrasy that bothered his team-mates was his insistence on sleeping with the air conditioning at full blast, even in the depths of winter. Fabregas would spend the night shivering in their shared hotel rooms.
But Reyes struggled with the language, the weather and the food. Try as they might, Arsenal could not persuade Reyes to eat the carefully prepared, nutrition-dense meals at the training ground. Invariably, he’d choose his mother’s home cooking.
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In February 2005, Reyes was the subject of a series of prank calls from Spanish radio station Cadena Cope. An impersonator purported to be Real Madrid’s director of football Emilio Butragueno, and Reyes said he was interested in a move to the Bernabeu. His mother, Mari, even told the radio station she would be happy to live in a ‘shack’ if it meant returning to Spain.
Wenger dismissed the stunt as “an easy joke”, but it revealed an undeniable truth: Reyes and his family wanted to go home.
In the end, Reyes got his move to Real Madrid, joining in an unusual ‘loan exchange’ deal that saw Julio Baptista go in the opposite direction. On the final day of the 2006-07 season, Reyes came off the bench to score twice against Mallorca, overshadowing the departing David Beckham and Roberto Carlos and securing the league title in the process.
After his one year with Real, Reyes had spells with Atletico Madrid and Benfica before returning to Sevilla in January 2012. “He is coming home,” read the club statement.
Although his time in England had not always been easy, those who knew Reyes felt it had been of enormous benefit to him.
“He had been a very childish person, used to living with his parents,” explains Del Nido Carrasco. “Being in London gave him great personal maturity. When he came back he was much more mature.”
He was part of the Sevilla squad that secured a hat-trick of consecutive Europa League trophies between 2014 and 2016. It secured his unique place in Sevilla’s history: the boy who departed to save the club from financial ruin and returned as a man to help take them to glory.
On June 1, 2019, Reyes was left out of the Extremadura squad for their game in Spain’s Segunda Division. While the team boarded a coach to Cadiz, Reyes got into his Mercedes and headed for the town he had always called home: Utrera.
He was just 11 miles or so from his destination when the car careered off the A376, hit a metal barrier at the roadside, span out of control and burst into flames. Images of the wreckage showed only a blackened, charred chassis.
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Reports suggested Reyes had been travelling well over the 120kph speed limit, but later analysis suggested a burst rear tyre may have been the true catalyst of the accident.
Reyes died inside the vehicle, as did his cousin Jonathan, who was only 21. Another cousin, Juan Manuel Calderon, somehow survived, albeit with serious injuries.
“I remember I received a message from a friend of ours,” says Edu. “Your first reaction is to say, ‘What?!’ I started trying to contact people close to him, trying to check the information. Suddenly, it was confirmed. Straightaway all my memories came through of what we went through together. It was a really, really sad moment.”
Reyes was survived by his wife and three children — two daughters with his widow Noelia Lopez, and a son, Jose Reyes Lopez, from a previous relationship.
“Jose was the most joyful and fun person I have ever met,” Noelia tells The Athletic. “He was always in a good mood and that was contagious. He was a family man and very attentive.”
“We talk about him daily. Our daughters were very little when everything happened and I like to explain to them what he was like, what he did, how much he loved them. I remember him always. He left us very good memories.”
The night before the funeral, his body was brought to Sevilla’s stadium. Thousands congregated, singing his name.
The next day, the people of Utrera lined the streets to say a final farewell. Reyes’ coffin was draped in two flags: that of Utrera, his hometown, and Sevilla, his club. On the side of the hearse, a simple message read: “Your children will remember you forever.”
Sergio Ramos, who will line up against Arsenal in this week’s Champions League tie, was one of those in attendance.
“This is one of the hardest days we have had to face,” he said, “not just for the Sevilla family but on a personal level too. It’s a terrible blow, he was a great friend. We grew up together, we’ve lived so much together.
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“Reyes always had that smile, that humour, that touch of mischief. There are a thousand things I remember: we always played jokes on the new guys and it was always him who started it.
“I’d like him to be remembered always with that smile, from ear to ear; he deserves that because he was a great person. He deserves respect and eternal affection.”
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez assured the family he would do whatever he could to help Reyes’ then 11-year-old son, Jose Reyes Lopez, pursue his dreams of following in his father’s footsteps.
Reyes Lopez is now 16, and last month signed his first professional contract with Real Madrid. He has become one of the stars of Real Madrid’s La Fabrica academy, and a Spain Under-17 international. The Reyes football legacy may yet continue.
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A mile from the church where Reyes’ funeral was held is Utrera’s San Juan Bosco stadium. It is no Emirates, no Bernabeu. It holds just 3,000 fans — it is dwarfed by the town’s historic bullring. But it is in the town Reyes held most dear and as such, is the perfect place for a lasting tribute.
In May 2023, local officials unveiled a bronze figure of Reyes at one corner of the old football ground. His family were there, as were Sevilla president Jose Castro and his deputy, Del Nido Carrasco.
“Whenever possible, we have tried to live up to what Jose Antonio deserves by being close to the family, inviting them to everything we can,” says Del Nido Carrasco.
When Arsenal played Sevilla in preseason, Jose Antonio’s father was present. He was also a guest for Arsenal’s 2-1 win in Seville in October. Whenever two of his son’s former clubs meet, it is a painfully poignant occasion for the family.
“Understand me,” explains Del Nido Carrasco. “When his father came for this last game against Arsenal, it was a moment of joy but also of great sadness.”
Reyes died on the day of the 2019 Champions League final. His friend Alberto Moreno was in Liverpool’s matchday squad for their 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur, wearing a T-shirt with Reyes’ face printed on it underneath his Liverpool kit. In his post-match interview, Moreno’s eyes misted over, his voice cracked. Joy and sadness. “I dedicate this trophy to him,” Moreno said. “Wherever he is, tell him I love him and that I’ll carry him in my heart.”
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In the same competition, Arsenal and Sevilla have come together and remembered Reyes.
After Arsenal’s win in Seville, the away fans were kept behind at the stadium. After they had serenaded the victorious Arsenal players, the 2,224 travelling fans spontaneously broke into a chorus of “Jose Antonio, Jose Antonio”. There will be 60,000 supporters singing the same name on Wednesday night at the Emirates.
“It gives us such pride,” his widow Noelia tells The Athletic. “It is also a nice way to honour his legacy and keep his memory alive.
“It’s a recognition of his professional career, but even more so of the mark he left as a person.”
Joy and sadness for Jose Antonio Reyes — this much-missed husband and father, this cherished son of Utrera and Seville, and Arsenal’s lost Invincible.
(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Sam Richardson)