Hugo Bueno

In Spain, young prospects looking to carve a career in professional football will often stick close to home, settled at their clubs, hoping to climb the career ladder from lower levels of the domestic game. But Hugo Bueno, aged just 16, made a drastic decision to expedite his development.

Having progressing through the youth system at third-tier club CD Areosa, Bueno swapped the white, wind-swept beaches of Galicia for the industrialised West Midlands. Unsurprisingly, it was a change that brought challenges both on and off the pitch.

“It’s a very big change to come from Spain to England. Here, the football is tougher and with far greater intensity. Once you get here you know that you are going to have to adapt – and the main thing is your physique. After two workouts I realised that I needed to spend lots of time in the gym, or things would not be easy for me,” he explained. 

“In my head, I had already assimilated before coming that it was going to be this way and I have always been a person who likes to train hard, so that’s why I have handled it well.” 

However, one change he did not expect would arrive just weeks into his integration. “Under Nuno Espírito Santo, the first team usually played with a five-man defence – so they decided to change my position to the left back. It was weird because I was used to being a more attacking player until that moment.”

“Tactically is where I struggled most. Retaining my position, keeping in line with my defensive partners, staying disciplined when the right back pushed forward. It was a difficult transition, telling myself that I had to defend more and hold back my natural instincts. Although playing in a back five, you always have an opportunity to join in the attack and I love that,” Bueno emphasises.

Sporting ambitions aside, the prospect of any teenager leaving home would prove daunting. But English football is unique in this sense. Unlike the established norms in Spain, many clubs rely on adoptive families to help the adaptation process of their young signings.

“There are no [academy] residences here, so they put us in homes of families who collaborate with the club. It’s a good idea because you feel welcomed, you have close people who try to keep you well, they care about you and for me it has been a great help,” the teenager explains.

“Life beyond football here is quiet. There’s not much to do. The shops close at 5pm, you leave training at 4pm and there is not much to do. Everything is focused on football and you have to know what you are coming for. 

“Obviously it depends on the person, there are some who cannot adapt to this life but I knew what was coming. I have to say that I have been very happy from the beginning seeing that everything is related to football, which is what you want most in the end.”