If Michu was an unknown before arriving on English soil, he certainly is not now.
The Spaniard has been the revelation of the Premier League season, netting 13 league goals for Swansea which makes him joint-top scorer with Man United's Robin Van Persie.
The 26-year-old is out of Swansea's clash with Fulham today after picking up an injury on Boxing Day and already there are questions over how the Welsh side will cope without their talisman.
It begs the question: how did a big club in Spain or England not notice his talents?
Michu - a native of Northern Spain - started off his career with home-town Real Oviedo - the club which also produced Juan Mata and Santi Cazorla.
Unlike Mata or Cazorla the 6-foot-1 striker was not snapped up by a Primera Liga side in his teens so he plied his trade in the Tercera Liga and Segunda Division B - the equivalent of the English League 2 and League 1.
And His goalscoring stats were not hugely impressive at that time as he netted 13 goals in 100 league games for Oviedo.
Sideways step
That meant he remained somewhat under the radar and when he did move on in 2007, he made the sideways step to Celta Vigo's reserve team who were also playing in the Spanish third tier.
In one season with the Galician club's reserves he scored 10 times in 28 which earned him a call-up to the senior side who played one division higher and were at one of their lowest both financially and on the field.
Yet in terms of goalscoring Michu hardly set the world on fire, with 14 goals in four years at the club and also missed a penalty in a promotion playoff shoot-out with Granada in June 2011.
However it must be remembered that Michu was more of a second-striker or attacking midfielder and that is the position he played to great effect when he finally got his chance in La Liga when he moved to Rayo Vallecano - the team with the smallest budget in the top flight last season.
From an advanced midfield position Michu finally made his mark last season scoring 15 league goals which earned him a move to the Premier League.
Although Swansea boss Michael Laudrup bought him to play as a second striker, he has established himself as the lone forward in a 4-2-3-1.
In many ways he has the physique and attributes to play up front which makes it a surprise that he rarely played in that position during his early career.
But it is his "insatiable desire to improve" - as one of his Rayo coaches put it - which must have helped him adjust to a new role.
And that suggests that he will continue to thrive up front rather than become a one-season wonder.
