This Spanish SKC defender never stopped loving soccer, even through cruelty of injuries

It had been over two years since Andreu Fontas last felt pain in his Achilles.

The Spanish defender had made a blockbuster move to Sporting Kansas City half a year earlier, arriving in Major League Soccer following two excellent seasons for Celta de Vigo in La Liga, Spain’s top soccer league.

The 2019 MLS season was supposed to be his time to show why KC snapped him up on a free transfer in August 2018 and made him one of its highest earners, with a base salary north of $1 million.

And then he felt the pain. The fear.

Again.

“No, it can’t be the same, please. I don’t want it to be the same.”

‘A terrible pain’

Rewind to September 2015.

Having narrowly escaped relegation in their first season back in La Liga in 2013, Celta de Vigo dropped a little over $1 million to sign Fontas from Barcelona. He was a UEFA Champions League-winning defender in 2011 with the Catalan Giants, but a ruptured cruciate ligament stunted his ascent.

Fontas went on to play over 70 games for Celta de Vigo over the next two seasons, becoming a rock in defense who helped catapult the club from the brink of relegation to actual contention.

But at the start of the 2015 season, Fontas began to feel a sharp pain in his left Achilles. And not just on the field — no, it was paining the then-25-year-old to even get out of bed and walk.

“It’s a terrible pain, it’s very difficult to deal with,” Fontas said. “The first steps are terribly painful.”

Fontas spent two months trying to rid the pain through daily exercises. Perhaps it was just tendinitis that could be fixed through physical therapy, he reasoned.

But the discomfort worsened. He eventually needed to go under the knife.

He was diagnosed with Haglund’s Deformity, a condition caused by an extra part of the heel bone that sticks out the back of the heel. This enlargement causes the soft tissue near the Achilles tendon to become irritated until the pain becomes unbearable.

Surgery and subsequent rehab kept Fontas out of action for nearly 300 days. But he returned to full strength, making 43 appearances for Celta de Vigo before Sporting KC came calling.

Same pain, different Achilles

Just 28 at the time, Fontas was in the prime of his career and ready for a fresh start in America. He could leave the pain, and bad memories of his Achilles injury, behind in Spain.

But heading into the 2019 season, he felt that pain again. This time, however, it was in his other Achilles, the right one.

“It’s terrible. Being injured, it’s the worst thing in the world,” he said. “The worst, the worst, the worst that can happen to any professional athlete, because you cannot do what you want to do: your passion.”

Fontas ended up playing through agony in 2019, hoping against hope he wouldn’t need surgery again. Another operation would mean another year spent in the treatment room, out of action.

He appeared in 18 games in 2019, but once again, the pain eventually became too great. In October 2019, Fontas once again resigned himself to having surgery.

“This can fix you. I know it will be hard,” he would tell himself. “I’m not done. This is not over.”

For the first three weeks after the second surgery, his foot wasn’t allowed to touch the floor at all. A couple of months on crutches followed, limiting his workouts.

Within two weeks of the procedure, he was back at Sporting KC’s training facility every day for morning treatments. But when the rest of the team jogged outside to begin practicing, he’d remain inside on the treatment table.

“I was with them a lot, breakfast or around the facility in the gym, but still you don’t feel exactly part of the group at that time,” he said. “They go out, they train, you cannot do it, they travel, you cannot do it, all these things.”

And then the pandemic hit.

Fontas went from recovering alongside his teammates and the club’s medical staff to being home with his wife and young daughter.

“They’re super-important,” he said of his family. “Without them, no chance that I will be here playing again.”

He stayed in touch with Sporting’s trainers through Zoom and Facetime sessions, but the isolation from his soccer teammates was frustrating.

“You don’t have this professional with you on your side saying ‘Take care,’ or, ‘Push more here,’ or ‘Don’t do that,’ or, ‘This is normal and this is not normal,’” Fontas said.

Fully fit in 2021

Not long after the MLS is Back Tournament, Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes spotted Fontas pushing through an individual workout.

It had been about nine months since Fontas’ surgery, and he was getting closer to regular fitness levels.

Vermes approached Fontas with some encouraging words:

“Listen, if you can do all the stuff that you just did and you don’t have any pain, there’s no reason why you can’t jump into training now,” Vermes told him.

By then, the Spaniard was more than ready to get back on the field with his teammates. Although he was a little hesitant, fearing an exacerbation of his latest injury, he agreed with the coach and practiced with the squad the next day.

Those first steps back on the practice field felt somewhat alien.

“It’s an amazing sensation. I would say it’s the best moment,” Fontas said. “It makes you feel, first, so proud of what you just accomplished, because it’s not easy. And then, just hungry for more.”

Fontas returned to action on October 15, 2020, one year and one week after he first underwent surgery. He started for the club again 10 days later, scoring in Sporting KC’s 4-0 win over Colorado.

Now, he’s fully fit heading into the 2021 season and is looking to build upon what he did in 2019 — an MLS debut made even more impressive by the pain he endured then, and since.

Yes, he’s suffered serious injuries in his career. But he still loves nothing more than being on the soccer field, and he again has something to prove.

“All the games I’ve played with pain, my pain is not the last memory I will have from soccer,” he said. “I will prove myself, that I can come back and be strong and good again.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 11:20 AM with the headline "This Spanish SKC defender never stopped loving soccer, even through cruelty of injuries."