From Luis Enrique to Luis de la Fuente, from Qatar to Germany, Spain is renewing itself: only 10 players from those who participated in the last World Cup repeat in the squad. Without the historic Busquets, the helm of La Roja is taken by Rodri; Jordi Alba retired, Cucurella appears; and the inspiration in attack is now in the boots of Lamine Yamal and Nico Williams. There is something that does not change: Spain surrenders to Pedri’s football. “I feel important because Luis gives me a lot of confidence,” he confesses. However, he gives himself to the group. “Spain’s greatest asset is that we are a team, a family on and off the field. There is no clear leader here. That is the big difference with the rest of the teams: here we are a team. The captains help a lot, but there is no clear leader,” remarked the Canarian.
Pedri is not deceiving. Since he landed in the Las Rozas Soccer City, his teammates pampered him. “No one doubts what a player he is and what he can bring to us. He has to catch that competitive rhythm to reach the level he had,” explained Rodri, when La Roja was still focused on Madrid. Support for Pedri is not only in the locker room. The coaching staff, with De la Fuente at the helm, followed Pedri’s season with special attention. “Since he took office he has cared a lot about me, and that in bad times, when everything is critical, gives you a lot of confidence and makes you want to work more,” recalled the Barcelona player.
During the last campaign, the messages and calls between Pedri and De la Fuente were constant. The Canary Islander suffered three injuries (128 days in the infirmary) and missed 25 games. In fact, he is the Red player who accumulates the fewest minutes in his legs, 2,148, far from Rodri, the one with the most, with 4,935. “It has been a complicated season, but I am in a great moment,” Pedri insisted. Starting in Spain’s two preparation games before traveling to Germany (Andorra and Northern Ireland), the Canary Islander chases away the ghosts of injuries. “Afraid?” he questioned. “I’m not afraid of a relapse, it seems like the press is the one that’s afraid because you’re always talking about it.”
Physically recovered, but above all without fear, the injury to Dani Olmo, one of De la Fuente’s favorites, opened the door to the starting eleven for Pedri. He does it, in any case, in a different position than the one he usually plays in for Barcelona. “Now I play more forward. I am in the danger zone and with more options to score a goal. I work day by day on finishing,” he concludes, after his first two goals for Spain against Northern Ireland. A demarcation in which Hansi Flick, Barcelona’s new coach, had already imagined him. “Hansi’s idea is for him to play behind Lewandowski,” they say from Sant Joan Despí.
Pedri, as calm as he is defiant, inflates confidence before Spain’s debut against Croatia next Saturday. He has the support of his teammates, as well as his coach: “A team will always beat a team.”
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