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There is a universally common line issued by mothers and grandmothers whenever a loved one is ill.
“Get some sun.”
Increasing sun exposure when feeling under the weather has its benefits, largely relating to the sun’s production of Vitamin D. When you’re unwell, sunlight helps.
Certain footballers, particularly those reared in and accustomed to warmer climates, thrive in the sun. For them, Apollo’s fiery chariot is more than just a light source, it is the dictator of their mood. Overcast days and torrential rains are the polar opposite of their heart’s desires.
In regular life, anyone feeling lost or struggling at work is often advised to seek a change of scenery. Shifting environments can bring fresh ideas, exciting challenges, and a renewed sense of professional energy.
Both pieces of advice; sunlight for the ill and a change of professional scenery for those professionally stalling, have major benefits for those who heed them.
At Real Betis, both sets of advice are seemingly driving a wave of career revivals propelling the club towards the top of La Liga’s table, a position they’ve been fixed to since 2020-21.
Led by Premier League winner Manuel Pellegrini, Betis have captured European football’s attention not so much for what they’re doing, but who they’re doing it with.
Seville, Spain. Perhaps not as attractive to the uninitiated international tourist as its counterparts Madrid and Barcelona, but the city’s rich beauty, both natural and architectural, are impossible to ignore. Capital of Andalusia and separated from the sea by 113 kilometres of land, Seville’s Mediterranean climate is the stuff of dreams. So hot and dry are the city’s summers that temperatures soaring above 40 degrees is not an uncommon occurrence, while rain is sparse in the mild winters.
If you want sun, Seville has plenty.
There is more to the town than its elements. A rich culture, both culinary and otherwise, permeates through the streets and Game of Thrones fans recognise the Alcazar of Seville – a palace dating back to the 10th century – as Dorne.
> Real Betis are on a 5-match La Liga winning run – a run only matched by Barcelona ????9 goal contributions between these two.
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> Antony and Isco – stars reborn ???? [pic.twitter.com/phXgghtjl2](https://t.co/phXgghtjl2)
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> — Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) [March 18, 2025](https://twitter.com/footballontnt/status/1901944669879124190?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
And then there’s football. Two teams fighting for the undying love and ever-burning support of the near-700,000 residents.
By way of recent continental success, Sevilla is the more famous of the two, even if the last few years have been defined by spluttering form, internal conflict, malaise; those golden European nights now seem even further away than the sea. On the other hand Betis, the little brother, are in the midst of a vibrant rejuvenation led by Pellegrini.
At 71, an age most careers wind down, Pellegrini’s is again ramping. The Chilean is showing no signs of slowing, no signs of lacking the hunger and drive necessary to lead a charge up the Spanish top flight table and bring Betis some of the glory Sevilla once boasted. Leading the charge too is Isco, the boy once considered Europe’s finest talent who two years ago was deemed over the hill and surplus to requirements, unable to secure a mid-season move to German side Union Berlin.
After a few months on the football scrapheap the 32-year-old reunited with Pellegrini at Betis. Like a father plucking his favourite childhood action figure from the back of his son’s cupboard and playing with it, the move breathed new life into him.
“Pellegrini was very important,” the attacking midfielder recently told The Athletic, a statement true to both his career revival, and Betis’ newfound fortunes. “We have absolute freedom to do what we believe is the best thing to do to win.”
As is so often the case with creative footballers, Isco operates best when he is free to do as he sees fit to pick opposition defensive locks and bend a game to his will. In nine of his first 13 league games for Betis, he won Player of the Match. By December of his first season with Los Verdiblancos a one-year deal became four. By season’s end, he’d scored eight times – more than he’d managed since 2016-17 – and created five more for teammates, an eight-season high. In April, no player in Spain was deemed better and by the conclusion of that first season he was celebrated as the best player on the pitch 19 times; a career swansong now overwhelming morphing into a second climax.
Were it not for injury, he may well have formed part of Spain’s European Championship winning squad, and may have extended his revival to the international stage. A broken leg bone rendered that idea nothing more than a dream, although such dreams not being dismissed as fanciful and ludicrous is testament both to Isco, and the environment that’s facilitated him thriving.
2024-25 has also been kind to Isco. In 12 league games he’s scored five and provided two assists. Now though, he is not alone in his Andalusian career-reviving crusade. Former Manchester United winger Antony joined on loan in January, and has since found form that’d been lost to him since his early days in the Premier League.
In nine games across all competitions the Brazilian has six goal involvements, one more than he recorded in last season’s entirety. In his first two La Liga fixtures, he was awarded Player of the Match, a reminder that the 25-year-old’s career should not yet be written off, especially if the environment is right.
Betis appears that environment, for Antony, and for Isco, and for so many others. As Isco explained to The Athletic, sometimes players just need a new start, some new air.
“And Betis has the best air there is.”
Hector Bellerin has made a home for himself in the green and white half of Seville. So too have Ricardo Rodriguez, Pablo Fornals, and Giovani Lo Celso, the latter the club’s top league goalscorer this season after years in the wilderness at Tottenham.
Their 2022 Copa Del Rey winning side boasted Claudio Bravo, enjoying his career twilight in the Andalusian sun, and Nabil Fekir, who mightn’t be characterised in the same way as some of his teammates but was allowed to flourish at Betis in a way it mightn’t have afforded to him at other clubs.
“Many players have come here with people saying their careers were over, or they were not so good, but in the end we’ve been resurrected here,” Isco explained.
“When it happens so many times, it cannot be a coincidence. This club has something special.”