Pablo Hernandez, fondly known as 'El Mago' by fans across the globe because of his magic touch, turns 41 today and he's showing no sign of stopping the magic anytime soon.
If there is one thing we can thank Garry Monk for, it is bringing Pablo Hernandez into our lives. Cast aside at Al-Arabi in Qatar, the move to Elland Road rejuvenated Hernandez and rejuvenated Leeds United. A rare shining star in those Monk, Christiansen and Heckingbottom teams, it was the arrival of Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United that really brought out the best in El Mago. His best years behind him perhaps, but there was no questioning his ability. On his day still one of the best players in the Championship, our heartbeat, our talisman who often pulled something special out of the bag, created a chance out of nothing, scored a wonder goal.
Wherever Pablo played, his influence on the team was clear. Leeds just weren't as creative without him on the pitch. As much as our promotion to the Premier League and the season before had been a Bielsa revolution, it's hard to see how that revolution could have been so successful without the magician pulling the strings. Injuries limited his playing time towards the end, but those 45 minutes a game in our promotion season drove us onto the title and back to the Premier League for the first time in sixteen years.
A move back to Spain seemed inevitable, and Castellón became a Mecca where Leeds fans pilgrimaged to worship a truly magical footballer. And when Pablo finally hung up his boots in 2023, we thought the story was over. We should have known better. You can't keep El Mago out of the game. Now in his first season in first team management, Pablo has turned Castellón's 2025/26 campaign into one of the most remarkable stories in Spanish football.
Handed the reins as a caretaker when the club sat in the relegation zone after five games, he went to work and it turns out the vision, the creativity and the sheer footballing intelligence that made him so special as a player translates perfectly to the dugout. A stunning 4-0 away demolition of Real Valladolid in February sent them to the summit of LaLiga Hypermotion. It's no coincidence either that he credits Bielsa's training methods as a core part of his approach, the student carrying the master's lessons forward. A wobble in form since then has seen them slip to sixth, but they remain very much in the promotion picture with plenty of the season still to play. In management, as in football, El Mago always seems to find a way.
We will always have that goal against West Brom, that defining moment against Swansea and so many more to remember him by as a player. But now we get to watch the next chapter unfold and if the first season is anything to go by, El Mago has a very bright future ahead of him in the technical area too.
His name already sits alongside those of Strachan and Bremner in Leeds United folklore. Today, on his 41st birthday, we simply say this: Feliz cumpleaños, El Mago.