“If I wasn’t a soccer player, I’d be working as an electrician in the village right now”

by time news

2023-05-13 08:00:57

BarcelonaAleix Vidal (Puigpelat, 1989) faces his last five games with Espanyol. A few hours before a critical Barcelona derby for the white-and-blues, the winger attends the ARA to talk about the situation that Espanyol is experiencing, as well as to review a career full of trips that was very close of being interrupted at the beginning, when he trusted everything to “one last bullet from the revolver”. That shot went well for him and now, after a decade in the First Division, he hopes not to record his first relegation.

How are you personally experiencing this season?

— It’s been a complicated year. I did not imagine that we would suffer so much. For the entire dressing room it is hard to see that the days go by but that the results are not favorable. The key has been that we have conceded too many goals, because we have scored in almost every game, but it is very difficult if you have to score two or three to win. In Primera mistakes are paid very dearly. The situation is not easy, and even more so with the most complicated schedule of the teams fighting for permanence, but as long as there are points left we will continue to trust. I don’t have a demotion on my resume yet and I hope this isn’t the first.

You drew at the Camp Nou and have come from a win at the Sánchez Pizjuán. Beating Barça is not impossible, is it?

— Nothing is impossible in football. It’s very difficult because we’re having to experience the bad part of football and they’re having to experience the good, but the matches against the greats tend to be special, different, and the dynamics are put aside. I have the confidence that we will win against Barça and face what is left with more hope. We don’t need anything other than the three points. We can’t waste any more time, we need the points.

It’s not been an easy year for you personally, either.

— Now is not the time to talk about this because we are experiencing a critical situation, but I do think that things have gone very wrong with me, here. I was sidelined until the end of the summer market. I’ve always respected the coaches’ decisions and I’ve had to experience a scenario I don’t like, but I’m a very mentally strong person who tries to turn the situations around. I will continue to train as I have done so far, and when I leave I will do so with my head held high, because I gave what I had in every game.

Has the dynamic of the team changed much with the arrival of Luis García?

— Mentally it’s difficult because no matter how much you play better, if you don’t win you don’t improve. In the game, it brings up a different style. I think that if Luis García had arrived earlier or at the beginning of the season, Espanyol would not be in this situation. But the situations have happened as they have and it is time to continue sawing the teeth.

It hasn’t been an easy career, yours. You went through more than a dozen seedlings until you reached the elite.

— This has helped me to be the way I am and to have the personality I have. The strong mentality I have has been fostered by the experiences I’ve had, leaving home and living alone for so long. I was never a promise to any of the teams I played for, I was a player who was looking for life. It wasn’t until I landed in Almeria that I found the confidence I needed, with Lucas Alcaraz. It was the last bullet in the revolver. If that had not gone well, he would have gone back to the village to play with his friends and work honestly like anyone else. The only career I have is that of the street. I’ve never been to school, but I had a higher degree in electricity and plumbing, so I’m sure if I wasn’t a footballer I’d have worked on that. That summer I prepared like never before and I was lucky that it turned out well.

From your time in the Espanyol youth team, you went so far as to say that you were only there “to put cones”. Was that stage really that hard?

— Yes, but not for the club in general. I was fine, living in the club residence in Gran de Gràcia, in Barcelona. I had a great year at Damm, where I was loaned out and where I was one of the top scorers, but when I returned to Espanyol I spent more time on the sidelines and placing equipment than playing. That’s why I left for Greece. As a child I saw that I had good seasons, that I had something different, but when I saw myself at 21 years old playing in Tercera in Mallorca, living alone away from home and earning 1,500 euros, I thought that maybe I would prefer to play for less and work in return to be with my people. Until Almeria’s opportunity arrived.

Footballers are increasingly physically fit athletes, but is there enough talk about the mental work you have to do?

— The mental aspect is more important than the physical, in football. Physically, today’s football is very equal, all the teams prepare a lot and have the tools to give the best performance, but it is in the psychological part where you see the most differences in football. There are players in very good conditions who have suffered a complicated situation and have not been able to turn it around. With performance, in the long run you can tell if a player is in a delicate moment. It’s unfair to criticize footballers without knowing what’s behind them, but I understand that everyone can have an opinion.

What has this second stage at Espanyol left for you?

— Both last year and this year I’ve been very comfortable there, it’s a very familiar club. Maybe in the institution things haven’t been done as they should be and that’s why we’re in this situation, but I’m not unhappy with the coaches or the teammates I’ve had. I would have liked to play more, but I promise not to play again and that the team is saved. Espanyol must be in Primera, it would be a very big shame if it went down, especially because of the fans, who have been on top of the team in a very complicated year.

You have a contract until June. Will you continue at Espanyol?

— I will not continue, the decision has already been made. The club has also made no move for him to continue. The situation was clear from both sides seeing how this end of the season went. I am looking forward to one last experience, because the next contract I sign will be the last. I want to go out of Spain, to have another experience, even though I don’t have anything signed yet. I don’t see myself in Saudi Arabia. I would like to play in the United States or Mexico, because I am a little special, I have my own things and I feel very identified with the American culture, but I am not important enough to decide where I can go. I will have to assess what comes and decide. I am 33 years old, but physically I feel very good. The Kings League? I won’t go there.

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