The midfielder Anuar Tuhami (Ceuta, 29 years old) faces his seventh season at Real Valladolid as a youth player who has managed to reach the first team and who has the affection of the fans through hard work. Anuar represents that majority of mid-level players, far from the spotlight, but key for the coaches and the dressing rooms. Pucela travels on its first two visits to the Santiago Bernabéu (this Sunday, at 17.00) and the Camp Nou (Saturday 31st), temples where those players forged on dirt pitches or squares with school backpacks as goalposts continue to be overwhelmed when they look up. The blanquivioleta return to the League under the label of “elevator team”, with two relegations and two promotions linked. Anuar celebrates not having “stayed in the hole” like other teams installed in Second and condemned to “hell”. In the conversation at the José Zorrilla stadium, a certain doubt arises when he is asked about a classic dilemma among modest fans: What do you prefer, 10 consecutive stays or a good year qualifying for Europe or going far in the Cup? “Imagine winning a title with your team or reaching Europe, it must be unimaginable, but now we need to settle down,” says the Ceutí.
Anuar’s dreams contrast with the laurels and millions of the other football, the one defended by Real Madrid as a Super League criticised by the player from Valladolid, who considers it “unfair” for preventing “surprises like the one against Girona, who thought they were going to save themselves and ended up in the Champions League and fighting for the League”. The fan, he believes, values these humble efforts and milestones more than the frequent big games that this model would imply. He is also not convinced by the Saudi pull, with millions attracting younger teammates each season and not as a graveyard for careers: “Everyone decides, but if you want to leave a mark, the impact is in the big leagues.”
Football evolves geographically and socially, with the protagonists becoming icons. Anuar avoids speaking out about politics because he does not have “as much knowledge” and avoids labels. “In a dressing room, people talk more about football, families, plans…”, he says, and in the dressing room, unity and success are forged: “Failure comes when each footballer goes his own way.” He has seen colleagues of great quality, but little thought or bad environment fall by the wayside. “It is not always the best who make it, but the most disciplined or those who are lucky,” he admits. And he remembers that he arrived at Valladolid at the age of 13 to fight to establish himself in the club. He achieved it through hard work, with a fan base that applauds the effort of those footballers with a secondary role, like Anuar who admits that he will rarely appear on the news, but that his role is to support the team: “The players with a secondary role set the level because they put pressure on the starter, otherwise, he relaxes and the level drops.” The mind, he continues, must assimilate being a substitute and push hard in training to try to get a starting place. This demand makes him understand the help of psychology for football, and also for those around him: “The worst thing about being a footballer is not being able to do what you want when you want. If you have lost you fancy a walk and you can’t because people will stop you. We live in a golden cage, we are privileged and we have to be thankful for it, but because of our job we cannot do simple things.”
This new era of football has a threat to the stability of the teams on social media, which are subject to fierce criticism or dangerous praise. Anuar rarely listens to these outside opinions, but asks that fans “have to understand each player’s style” and not demand that a physical player “decide the match”, or vice versa. Anu He has seen young teammates rush to look at their phones after a good game to read favourable comments. “But when you play badly, they will kill you. We should encourage talks with professionals to realise the danger of social media. People also have to see that it can cause harm.”
This constant pressure affects the team’s star as much as the player with a low profile, but essential for the coaches or the players in the dressing room. The Valladolid fans, the interviewee is grateful, protect youth players like him because they understand the difficulty of establishing themselves in the elite. Pucela has lost several youngsters from the club in recent summers, with some controversial departures and management contrary to Anuar’s recipe for settling into the First Division: “It is essential to have players from the youth team.” This institutional upheaval, with criticism of Ronaldo Nazario’s presidency and the confrontation last year with the coach, Paulo Pezzolano, is finally being felt on the pitch.
The relationship between footballers and whistles is difficult, explains Anuar, because of the mental burden that they carry with them in the game: “It is very hard. There are difficult moments and 11 rivals. It is hard to hear that if a teammate makes a mistake, they whistle at you even if the result is not adverse. If you are embarrassing, they whistle at you, but in difficult moments you need support.” The midfielder is serious about this loud scourge: “I cannot imagine whistling someone who misses a pass. Last year we were fighting for promotion and we heard shouts against the coach. There are people behind us and the coach has a family. I have seen teammates who receive whistles and then they start crying in the locker room out of helplessness, desperate.”
The profession, says the Ceutan, offers enormous benefits and fulfils the childhood dream of living thanks to the ball. He, father of a little girl, reflects on the future of football when he walks with the baby and finds squares and parks without kids running after the ball: “There are many regulations and you can’t play because you disturb the terraces or the neighbours. Seeing seven children in a park with Tik-Tok or Instagram leaves me paralysed. They have to be playing, living experiences. Perhaps, in underdeveloped countries more talent emerges because they continue playing in the street.”
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