The future of Spain is colored by the faces of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams. “They are two fundamental pieces. Players that children admire because they give freshness,” said Mikel Merino, one of the leaders in the La Roja locker room. However, last Monday, the day that UEFA opened all training to bring the teams closer to the fans, the star for the nearly 500 fans who came to the SV Asen field was precisely Merino. The Real Sociedad midfielder approached the audience and stayed for a while signing autographs. And he even spoke to them in German. “Although I didn’t have the minutes I would have liked, when I look back the memory is positive,” he recalled about his time at Borussia Dortmund.
In the summer of 2016, after Dortmund transferred Gündogan to Manchester City, the German team opted for the Basque midfielder. “I learned a lot, I was with world-class players. German football has changed a lot from what it is now; and I also. On a physical level. “Before, I didn’t even know how pressure works,” Merino said. At that time, the midfielder was one of the young players to watch, European under-19 champion in 2015. That Rojita was led by Luis de la Fuente – his first title – and Merino’s partner in the midfield was Rodri. Nine years later, the three meet again in a European team, now in the senior team.
From Greece to Germany, from La Rojita to La Roja, Spain does not change its skin. “I am in favor of having a clear style and being faithful to it,” Merino highlighted. However, there are nuances, especially if he compares him with Luis Enrique’s team. “This National Team is about being a team that adapts to different environments. There are games in which we may have to hold on, even if we like to dominate. We are going to try to be protagonists, but we are also going to adapt to running counterattacks, defending high up or in the middle block. But we are not going to close ourselves to anything because in 2024 football is going there, Merino added.
With a more or less rhetorical football with the ball, Spain does not want to hide. “Favorites are always on the table,” Merino stressed. And he added: “We have the confidence to be able to compete against anyone. The work we do has to be one hundred percent of what we can give. If Spain has something, it is that the maximum is always demanded of it. And then, winning or losing can depend on many things. If we have given our best, we can leave in peace. But not less than one hundred percent.” There is something that does not change for Merino, of course not for De la Fuente either, in the La Roja concentration in Donaueschingen the same formula that La Rojita used in 2015 in Greece is used: good vibes.
It is not strange, then, to see longs on tables in which Merino is never missing, always surrounded by his Real Sociedad teammates. “De la Fuente asks a bit of the same thing from all of us because we have to focus on the main thing, which is having a good group with good cohesion in which we all feel like participants. He tells us to have a winning mentality and, above all, a team player role. Give everything when you play and help when it’s not your turn,” explains Merino, one of the five Real players in Donaueschingen, who are usually also joined by those from Athletic (three). “It is a milestone for us that there are five Real players. “He speaks very well of the work being done in San Sebastián,” concluded Merino, raised in Osasuna, with experience in Germany and England, triumphant in Real, his ticket for the Euro Cup. He hopes, in any case, to know if he or Fabián will be Rodri’s partner in the midfield.
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