the one of Louis of the Source It will not be the only debut with the Spanish team in tomorrow’s duel against Norway. Also making its debut, in this case in the broadcast booth of Televisión Española, the journalist David Figueira (Pontevedra, 1980), in command as the main narrator of a national team match for the first time after the public channel decided to replace Juan Carlos Rivero after the World Cup in Qatar. Figueira lives the previous hours with a mixture of responsibility and pride. “And very happy that my company recognizes me and gives me the chance to give voice to one of the most attractive products on the open audiovisual scene,” he told ABC.
Figueira has been linked to RTVE for almost twenty years. First on the radio, where he was in charge of covering the MotoGP World Championship for five years, and then on television. «I have been burning stages, I have presented, I have made Cup matches, the women’s Euro Cup last summer…». He came to sports by chance, at Cadena Ser. It was the place that was left free in his first summer of practice. «I have always found myself very comfortable, because apart from football I have always liked all sports since I was little. And that is essential. You have to like what you do, because it gives you a knowledge base that is essential to comment on.
Juan Carlos Rivero ends his cycle as national team narrator after 17 years. And before him, José Ángel de la Casa stayed for 20 years. Figueira inherits a long-term position: “I’ve never liked to look much to the future,” he admits. «I am used to changing roles, doing different things. I don’t know if I’ll reach that goal, but at least I’ll have the satisfaction of having done it.”
The new narrator of the selection is left with the pause and aseptic style of José Ángel de la Casa and with Rivero’s capacity for evolution and adaptation. They are the closest references to him, but not the only ones. «I always listen to Miguel Ángel Román, now on DAZN, with great pleasure. He has all the qualities. The torrent of voice that he has, the rhythm, the pauses, the accelerations, the emotion that he puts… And to say two more, José Antonio Luque and Carlos Martínez ».
He also has his booklet. He likes to carry the studied encounter and collects multiple data, whether he uses it later or not. And he has been adding twists to better connect with viewers. “But the good and different thing about a game,” he says, “is that once it starts it’s a blank book, and with all that prior preparation you have to try to describe it in the best possible way. There is no exact manual for that.
At its premiere, he will be accompanied in the booth by the Chapi Ferrer, Fernando Llorente y Sonia Bermudezwhile Lara Gandarillas will continue to make interviews and comments on the ground. “I will be very well surrounded,” she values. Extra security before a premiere full of vertigo: «There is no fear, but I do respect knowing that I am facing a game that many people are going to see. It’s impossible for everyone to like it. I will do it like everything in these last twenty years. In the most objective way possible and trying not to be wrong ».