Add a simple php code snippet to redirect a single wordpress url to another

Alright, so I found the solution, it was a simple change in the request object class variable:

function redirect_workaround( $request ){
    if( $request->request === 'myspecialurl' ) {

        $latest = new WP_Query( array(
            'category_name' => 'myspecialcategory',
            'posts_per_page' => 1
        ) );
        if( $latest->have_posts() ){
            wp_redirect( get_permalink( $latest->post->ID ) );
            exit;
        }
    }
}
add_action( 'parse_request', 'redirect_workaround' );