There's something about Santi Cazorla. He has a strange effect on people. Mention him and there it is: the wide eyes, the enthusiasm, the enjoyment, the sense of discovery, the fun. From Ruud van Nistelrooy escaping the sun at Málaga's training ground and offering a judgment of unsolicited simplicity, to Xavi Hernández citing him as the embodiment of a footballing manifesto that has conquered all, there is something about him that brings out the fan in footballers. And in football managers.

"What a player Santi is," said Van Nistelrooy puffing out his cheeks early last season, just weeks after becoming his team-mate for the first time. Xavi, signalling his chest, said: "Have you seen Santi Cazorla? You think I'm small? He's up to here on me and he's brilliant." Neither man was asked to talk about Cazorla; both men, team-mates of his, chose to. As for Arsène Wenger, he called on every kid in the country to watch Cazorla play. And it was not just what he said that stood out as the way he said it. The look on his face.

Every time Arsenal's manager has mentioned Cazorla since he signed from Málaga for €15m (£12m) there has been a childlike quality to his response. A giggling guilt: how did we get him? And for that price? A price that Málaga's coach, Manuel Pellegrini, this week called "an unthinkable gift". Málaga's financial crisis provides part of the answer; the passivity of other clubs, though, remains a mystery because, however much Cazorla is touted as an unknown revelation, he is nothing of the sort.

The surprise is not that he is playing well – former team-mates say that they never had any doubts – but that, at 27, it has taken this long for him to be universally recognised. So far this season he has created more chances from open play than anyone else in England. It is not new: last season he created 82 goalscoring chances; only behind Lionel Messi, Mesut Ozil and Jesús Navas. The year before that, Opta put together a statistics-driven perfect XI of La Liga players: Cazorla and Juan Mata were the only non-Madrid or Barcelona players in it.

"When we signed him last summer, he symbolised us crossing from a good team to a great one. He is a player who plays and makes others play, supremely gifted. An artist," says the former Málaga sporting director Antonio Fernández, whose job it was, fleetingly, to lead the first big money project in the country.

Fifty caps for Spain – this Spain – say much, and Cazorla played a key role in winning Euro 2008, but he missed the 2010 World Cup through injury. The inevitable question runs: if he is so good, why did Madrid or Barcelona never sign him? The short answer is: they are Real Madrid and Barcelona. And Madrid tried. Twice.

In 2008 Cazorla was caught by TV cameras talking on the phone to Iker Casillas about his imminent move to Madrid, but Villarreal moved to block the transfer. And this week Pellegrini, his coach at first Villarreal and then Málaga, told Gazetta dello Sport that he had tried to sign him for Madrid the following season.

"He has the talent to play for either of those two but when the situation arose, Villarreal made an effort to keep him and he wanted to show his gratitude to them after all they had done," explains Carlos Marchena, a team-mate with Villarreal and Spain.

"I could never understand why Madrid or Barcelona never signed him," says Marcelino García Toral, his coach at Recreativo de Huelva. "It is hard to explain and it also makes me a bit sad. I think it's a real pity for the Spanish league."

Those who knew Cazorla knew. "Anyone who has played with him knew that everyone in England would fall in love with him," Marchena says. Joan Capdevila, Cazorla's room mate at Villarreal, adds: "He does things you've never seen. You want to know how good Santi is? Type 'Cazorla, Seitaridis' into YouTube."

The video is almost six years old, from the time that Cazorla spent at Recreativo de Huelva aged 21 to 22, a single-season hiatus in his seven years at Villarreal. In it, he flicks the ball from one foot to the other and through the legs of the Greek defender. It happens so fast you have to watch it again to appreciate the skill. And the problem, Capdevila says, is that few even watched it the first time: "If he had done that in the Champions League it would have gone round the world."

The technique is natural. Watch the Spanish national team do piggy-in-the-middle drills and you can see it. The ball whizzes round so fast, so precisely, that even very good players, world champions, can be made to look average. Cazorla is emphatically not one of them. Sit close and the speed can be dizzying. Cazorla barely flinches. Pass, pass, pass, right foot, left. "I played with him for five years and I still don't know if he is right footed or left footed, even from corners and free-kicks: it's insane," Capdevila says.

Marcos López is a coach in Oviedo who remembers being struck by an eight-year-old playing five-a-side futbol sala for a team called Covadonga. A team of kids from the neighbourhood, they were in the same division as clubs with long histories like Astur, Sporting Gijon, Real Oviedo and Estadio, where Juan Mata would later play. Still they won their group. "By the end of the season they could easily have scored 300 and conceded 20," López says. "Santi was very, very small but he was dynamic, could dribble and controlled games. He left everyone open mouthed."

Real Oviedo picked him up. Among his coaches was Luis Sánchez. "Santi stood out immediately, not least because he was tiny," he says. "These days everyone plays on Astroturf but back then all the pitches were muddy and he looked so small. But although there were inevitable question marks I never feared that size was going to be a problem. He could already kick a ball wonderfully with both feet, technically he was miles better than everyone else: he was prodigious. He could go past you on either side, and he was the top scorer by miles. He was dynamic, different. His talent is innate. And besides, he got stronger: he looks little now, but he is tough."

From Oviedo, Cazorla joined Villarreal at 15. But it was the year at Recreativo that made him. "You could see even then that he had all the qualities to be world class," says Javi Guerrero, who played with Cazorla there. "He was absolutely clear about where he wanted to go and we knew he would get there. He was two footed, even taking corners from both sides and both feet, swinging in or swinging out. I remember being impressed by that but what was most striking was how daring he was for a player so young."

The word Guerrero uses is desparpajo. It's a word many employ to describe Cazorla, one that could almost be translated as cheek. And watching the video Capdevila recommends, it is easy to see why. Yet there is also something eminently sensible and calm about his game. Listo, smart, is another recurring word. He controls the pace, the fluidity. In fact, Marcos Senna sees him as a potential long-term replacement for Xavi in the Spain team.

Recreativo's manager Marcelino says: "I had first seen him as a kid playing in Asturias but I'd lost track of him. When Recre signed him, we quickly realised that he was special. He was extremely clever." "He reads the game so well," says Antonio Fernández. "His movement with and without the ball is exceptional and his always takes the right decision. He improves those around him, playing for them not just himself."

"Santi is always available: he never, ever hides," says Capdevila. "He is a real leader. Not in the sense of shouting at people: he is not aggressive, he doesn't confront the referee, but he is a winner. He's extremely stubborn and very determined. Even off the pitch: even when we play cards or on the PlayStation, he always wants to win." Capdevila talks from experience: Cazorla jokes that the "one time" Capdevila beat him, he took a photo of the screen as proof to show his team-mates .

"I have watched him closely on the pitch for a long time and one of the things I don't think people see is that capacity to suffer, to read the game and know how to adapt: when to be practical, when to be expansive," Marchena says. "He is also always there for you, in all games, injured or not. His commitment, for someone so talented, is extremely unusual. For weaker players, sure. But not for someone like him."

"Players who think they have got it all tend to stagnate but Santi was never like that," Marcelino says. "He was straightforward, noble, very mature, humble. You didn't have to tell him much but when you did he listened and took it all on board. One of his greatest virtues was that he loves football. He watched every game, he was humble, he listened, and he wanted to win. He was a fútbolista futbolero."

Guerrero explains that description: "He watched every game, read everything he could. He really lived the game." Friends recall him as a 10-year-old playing his own games before heading off to watch his brother play, a football always at his feet. "With Santi it was football, football, football," Luis Sánchez says. "He has changed a bit though. Back then he hardly talked. I still see him occasionally and now he is a joker."

Cazorla's smile is part of his charm. "He tells the worst jokes ever," says Capdevila and Capdevila knows a thing about telling rubbish jokes. "His are worse – and he doesn't even know how to tell them properly. I laughed every single day with him." Marchena says: "He is a great team-mate, good in the dressing room: he never has a bad word for anyone, he is always smiling, always willing to help you out." To put that in sporting director terms, Málaga's Antonio Fernández says: "He creates an environment conducive to success." The text message response from one player responding to a request to talk about Cazorla sums it up: "For Santi, anything."

When Cazorla left Villarreal, Senna said he felt like the team had cut off a finger. They had qualified for the Champions League in his last season; in their first without him, they went down. Senna explains: "When Santi left, it left a huge hole. Both on the pitch and off it. If he had been there I am sure we would not have gone down. He is a player who never loses the ball. He's so complete: he knows when to pause, when to accelerate; he imposed a style and dynamism on the team. He interprets the game so well. And without him, we lost our identity, our way of playing."

Marchena agrees: "His departure was one of the main reasons that we struggled."

While Villarreal went down, Cazorla's new club, Málaga qualified for the Champions League for the first time in their history. And, when financial crisis hit, he left them too. Wenger was ready to take advantage. The perfect player, perfectly suited to his new environment.

Fernández says: "The other thing to take into account is that his style is perfect for Arsenal. He suits a team that wants to have the ball; he facilitates that approach." Senna says: "If it had been any other club, I am sure his adaptation would have taken longer but Arsenal play his way, similar to Spanish teams, so I am not remotely surprised that he has been so successful."

Wenger's definition sums it up: it is not just about creativity but about control. "He opens defences with the quality of his passing and he gives us a technical security that allows us to escape when we are under pressure. He can make us stronger and more efficient," Wenger says. There is, Capdevila says, just one problem: the language. "I want to see his first interview in English. Now, that is going to be a video worth watching."