Athletic Kepa did not last long. A sigh. Two seasons and 54 games. Raised in Lezama, where he learned to walk and teeth, he left his father’s house in the summer of 2018 to settle in the guest room at Chelsea. Real Madrid had contacted him before, they asked him to have a little patience, that they were going with everything for him, but the man from Ondarroa did not want to do so and moved to London. A move that cost the ‘blue’ club 80 million euros, today the amount ever paid by a goalkeeper. There, in the English capital, he has experienced everything. He flew high, then disappeared from the radar and has been resurrected to return to the national team two and a half years after his last cap with the national team. “I have gone through a difficult period,” he acknowledged after the call from Luis de la Fuente. A small journey in the sports desert that seems to have come to an end both in England and in La Roja. Except for surprise, this Saturday he will start against Norway due to the absence of Unai Simón due to injury.
The last time he enjoyed this condition with Spain was on October 7, 2020 in a friendly against Portugal. That also turned out to be the match with which he said goodbye to the national team… until now. “In life there are better and worse moments. He had never stopped playing, and he touched me ». Kepa was thus referring to the period between 2020 and 2022, when Frank Lampard only needed to take the entry card from the Chelsea car park. Then came the German Thomas Tuchel, who treated him with more affection and gave him a few minutes, but did not end his thirst for football either. The Athletic exporter darkened, disappeared, always under scrutiny due to his high cost, labeled the ‘most expensive in the world’. Hence perhaps some of his irregular actions, failures incompatible with his category, which disconnected him from the weekends and added him to a silence that he has just broken into a thousand pieces.
«I decided to get home with a calm head and the feeling of having given everything. It was the first step to assume the situation, “the Ondarrutarra goalkeeper confessed the other day. A situation that made him go from all to nothing in the blink of an eye. He went from playing 36 Premier League games in his debut campaign as a ‘blue’ to only having seven in 2020-2021 and just four in the past. Crumbs that he didn’t even bother to remove from the table.
Trust
Maurizio Sarri, with whom he had a major run-in when he refused to be substituted in the Carabao Cup final against City, gave him all the confidence in the world. Lampard took it off. He was his number one, but then the Englishman opted for Willy Caballero and signed Mendy. Tuchel also shot with the latter, until the arrival of Graham Potter to the London team changed Kepa’s life. He has played 27 games between the Premier (19), Champions (7) and FA Cup (1), finally starting again. He is the goalkeeper with the best save percentage in the English League and has just returned to the national team precisely because of his good performances on the island. Julen Lopetegui made him debut with La Roja, he was Robert Navarro’s number one and Luis Enrique called him for the last time in 2020.
Now Luis de la Fuente has recovered him for the cause – they have known each other since their days in the sub’21 – because he trusts the man polished in the Lezama youth academy. After two seasons in the shadows, without leading role, Kepa smiles again. He has rediscovered football and the best sensations, the same ones for which Chelsea paid 80 million to Athletic five years ago.