FOOTBALL PHILOSOPHY
“I have always seen the essence of football in the same way, mainly what I learned from my dad, but you have to be able to adapt. That’s key. If you are living in this era and the way football is changing, then either you adapt yourself and you change and modernise your thinking or you’ll get stuck in the past. Of course, from my point of view you have to have some values and principles that stick with you always, it doesn’t matter what age you are, but there are certain things that need to change.
“The essence of football for me is I love to play with the ball. I enjoy being with the ball. I love to go for wins, I love to feel like a family in the dressing room and with everyone at the club. I love to feel like one with the supporters and for them to be proud of the way we play and the way we try to win games. I love it when I see players improving and getting to a different level thanks to their team-mates, the manager and everyone around them. There are many things in football that I love, it’s that essence. For me the essence is when I used to play with my friends in school, we played play one-against-one, we tried tricks, we scored goals… yes, of course, now the demands are different, but the sport is the same and the core of it and the feeling I have for it is the same.
“Of course football has changed. There have been many changes since I started playing, since my dad was playing too, up to now. On the pitch and off the pitch. On the pitch the way the game is played, tactically it has changed, physically it has changed, and statistically it has changed. In every single department, if I speak about nutrition or psychology or player care, many things have changed… one of them being social media which has a big presence now in every aspect of football. That brings more distractions which we didn’t have before or my dad didn’t have, although probably he had different distractions but not as many as now. But, again, that’s something you have to adapt to nowadays or your frustration will be inevitable and too much.
“We can speak also about technology in football with VAR and new rules. Everything changes in life, and in sport and football in particular, and probably in 20 years we will be saying it has changed again in a different direction. The best thing you can do and, for me, the most intelligent thing you can do, is to adapt without losing your essence.
“United has always done that. It has adapted but also one of the many things that makes this club great are the values that it has stuck with over the years, and in the difficult moments which, for me, shows strength and really believing in what your values are. That’s why it’s special to play for this club. It’s just incredible the way it’s overcome difficult situations and it will keep doing it as long as football is played, because it’s the way this club is.”
