Kiko Femenía’s upper body is adorned with tattoos.

Many are motifs of his commitment to his religion, like the large one of the Virgin Mary on his inner right arm.

Others are more personal. He has his initials and those of his two sisters inked onto a small crown on his upper left arm. Nice touch. There is a red rose on his left hand together with the initial of his partner, Eleanor. The date they met is inscribed on his chest. Sweet. There is one he regrets though, one rather crude one on his inner right arm that isn’t quite in keeping with the rest of the impressive artwork. It’s not easy to make out.

“It says ‘Kiko’,” he explains. “I did it when I was 16. I don’t know why. I regret it now.”

Nobody in these parts needs reminding exactly who Kiko is. His name is as etched on Marco Silva’s teamsheet as indelibly as it is on his arm, quite some feat when you consider he’s keeping Daryl Janmaat, the club’s record defensive purchase and Dutch international, out of the side.

And it’s even more remarkable when you factor in that Femenía only began his career as a right-back about this time last season. How about that.

"Alavés told me they were not counting on me anymore as a winger,” said Femenía. “They told me you play as a right back or you don’t play with us anymore.”

That’s quite some ultimatum. Perhaps that formed part of his decision to run down his contract with the Spanish club and leave on a free last summer.

Unfazed by the stinging feedback from the coaches at Alavés and with his career at the crossroads, Femenía threw himself into the challenge of learning a new position on the hoof in the unforgiving world of La Liga. The transition, from a Gerard Deulofeu type winger to a Hector Bellerin style full-back, has proved seamless. He looks like he's played there all his life.

“I started to play right-back and they liked the way I played," Femenía says. “I knew already a little bit how to play there. I just had to learn the mechanisms. I’ve learned to close back and how to defend better. Sometimes I go too much forward but I am learning all of the time.”

Imagine how good he'll be as he gets more experience under his belt. Right now he’s more in the David Bardsley school of right-backs than the Nigel Gibbs one.

You wonder if he had reinvented himself earlier in his career, although he is only 26, whether he would have been rejected by Valencia as a kid.

“I went for trials but they didn’t want me,” he recalls. “I was very young and at that moment the coach was not convinced of my potential and he sent me home." He could be one of the ones that got away.”