LaLiga 2019/2020: Ranking the top 10 playmakers in the league this season

#2 Santi Cazorla (Villareal)

Villarreal v Valencia - UEFA Europa League Quarter Final : First Leg

Football is a beautiful game which every now and again throws up emotional stories of players or teams surmounting impossible odds to achieve greatness.

Last season, Santo Cazorla had one of the most remarkable fairytale comeback stories memory when he defied expectations to return to the game he loves.

The 34-year-old had initially starred in LaLiga for Villareal and then Malaga (who he helped qualify for the Champions League for the first time ever in 2012), before completing a move to Arsenal in the Premier League.

Under Wenger's tutelage, Cazorla was soon catapulted into one of the most effective players in the league, and was the provider of numerous assists, including the unique feat of assisting all four goals in Arsenal's 4-1 victory over Wigan Athletic in 2013.

He is one of the truly ambipedal players in the game and grew from strength to strength at Arsenal, and was widely lauded for his passing ability and creativity, with his 35 assists and 129 through balls from 129 appearances serving as proof of this.

However, an injury sustained to his right Achilles tendon in October 2016 severely hampered his progress, with the injury turning out to be more serious than first feared.

The muscle tear would degenerate into gangrene (a medical condition where tissue becomes infected and 'eats' into the tendon) and Cazorla ended up having eight operations on the ankle, while also having skin graft to repair the damaged tendon.

At a point, it was feared that he would lose the leg to amputation and it was widely believed that he would never walk again, with the thought of ever returning to football virtually impossible and it came as no surprise when Arsenal released him upon the expiration of his contract in 2018.

However, against all odds, Cazorla returned to his boyhood club Villareal, and despite being out of competitive action for over three years, he still starred, and ended the campaign as one of the bets performers in the league.

He finished the season with 10 assist, behind only Messi, Sarabia and Jony, and his form with the Yellow Submarines led to a recall to the Spanish national team, while he was also named Villareal Player of the Season.