A few months ago, when Real Madrid’s 15th European Cup seemed like a distant fantasy, Dani Carvajal’s father, Mariano, a national police officer, rode a horse again. He had not done so for a long time, after years in the cavalry unit, with which he had guarded the surroundings of the Santiago Bernabéu on many European nights. He wanted to be ready to escort the team bus at the Champions League celebrations with which his son would equal the six that only Gento had accumulated. Until Saturday, when his son’s goal at Wembley led Nacho, Modric and Kroos to catch up with that old legend who spent 58 years alone at the top.
Mariano was in the stands at Wembley watching the feat and this Sunday afternoon he was trotting on the back of one of the two white horses that led the way through the streets of the center of Madrid to the bus with the Orejona; The one on the left. He had prepared himself for that day. He did not escort them three weeks earlier, at the League celebrations. He had remounted for the day his son reached Gento.
The night before, Carvajal, happy and smiling as ever, was proud of the achievement: “Very happy to join such a select club of five players that has six European Cups. It will be increasingly difficult for them to take this away from us, because it is very difficult to win one.”
However, the footballer had been imagining even further for weeks. Since they eliminated Bayern in the semifinals. “To equal Gento would be incredible,” he said, according to a close source; “But I see myself with a chance of winning more than six.” On Saturday, in the Wembley press room, he also pointed to that: “Hopefully, why not?, add some more.”
Until Saturday, his favorite final was that of the Décima, that of Ramos’ goal in the 93rd minute, but the match against Dortmund changed preferences. He was leaving London after scoring the goal that opened the scoring and as player of the match. In that, in guarding with more affection one in which he was decisive, he also agrees with Gento, as in the detail that they are the only two of the five club who were starters in the six finals they won. The Cantabrian’s favorite was always the third, which they beat Milan in Brussels (3-2) in 1958: “I scored the winning goal in the 107th minute of extra time. I remember that Di Stéfano told me that they were all very tired, that only I could win that game. The first thing I thought was that he wanted to kill me, but it was true that he was fine with me.”
Nor was it expected that a not very tall full-back would begin to decide the game in London, and even less so with a header. But this is another discovery by Carlo Ancelotti. Until this season, Carvajal had never entered the area to finish corners. Not even as a child in the lower categories. In the last few years, his place was at the edge of the area, waiting for a rebound, or to deactivate a counterattack. Until Ancelotti saw something, which he explained on Saturday: “He is very good at set pieces, because he is small and they say, he doesn’t do anything. “It’s very good, because it’s very reactive in the area.” Carvajal also knows it: “Not everything is height. Entering duels, jumping with determination often leads to success.”
At Wembley he caught up with Füllkrug, an air specialist 16 centimeters taller. “I ran out to celebrate. Inside I felt angry about scoring, here I am,” he said. The goal with which he began to capture his sixth Champions League was also in some way the end of his rebellion against the criticism he suffered last season. He saw publications that said that he was finished, that he should retire, that Madrid had to find a replacement for him, and he felt the opposite, that he still had football left. But he did not receive the recognition that he thought his career deserved.
Nor in the national team, where last June he did not start in the Nations final, although he ended up deciding it in the penalty shootout by shooting like Panenka. That, according to close sources, was an “emotional shock” that lasted the entire season. Until the goal at Wembley, when he put his father back on the horse, to make way for him with his sixth Champions League to the final party at the Bernabéu, where he patrolled before the footballer made his debut for Madrid.
You can follow The USA Print in Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
