It was in the final days of December 1973. In the media closest to Málaga, there was speculation that José Pons, known as El Cordobés, was certain to return to the club. It was not a Christmas slogan. The footballer landed in Valencia to spend New Year’s Eve with his family. Christmas was coming to an end. The league competition granted a truce that the player took advantage of to disconnect in the city of Turia. However, the coordinates were already set in those days of illusions and hopes. Pons, the object of desire of the institution presided over by Manuel Grau Torralba since the summer period prior to the birth of the regularity championship, landed in the Valencian capital with a discharge among his belongings as this title attests.
The attacker emancipated himself from the tutelage of C.D. Málaga. The document presented accredits his separation from the club to which he had been linked in the summer of 1967 after breaking into professional football linked to Levante U.D. in the First Division. The Malacitana club and the striker released a commitment that had linked them for the last seven seasons. On 27 December 1973, the Málaga president, the secretary and the striker himself signed the cancellation of the established entente. José Pons had absolute freedom to guide his destiny, although it seemed predestined to restore his status as a footballer connected to the granotas. All that was needed was to fix his return.
Grau Torralba persuaded the first player from the blaugrana youth academy to make his debut in the elite with the representative team. On 29 December 1973, he signed his agreement with Levante. He was one of the reinforcements of the winter market. On the third of January 1974, Pons once again donned the blaugrana shirt in an official match. It was in a match in the fourth round of the Copa del Generalísimo. Levante destroyed Barcelona Atlético (5-1). The match was the opening game of a tie that threatened a storm after the events that took place in the second leg. (3-0).
A few days later, Pons returned to the Nou Estadi pitch in a dramatic duel between the Granotas and Osasuna in Pamplona (0-1). The relegation scrap was a threat to the opponents, and the match was a decisive one. Héctor Núñez trusted in the player’s performance by including him in the starting eleven. Pons made eighteen appearances between January and May 1974. Levante closed the season by returning to the Third Division. The attacker maintained his contract with Grau Torralba’s club during the 1974-1975 season.