The conversations with Bojan and Iniesta that helped Morata not to give up on the Euros | Euro 2024 Germany

With just over a month to go before the start of the European Championship, Alvaro Morata considered the possibility of withdrawing from the competition. A clear missed chance at Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion in the first minute of the Champions League quarter-final second leg and the trigeminal neuralgia he suffered brought him down emotionally. The strange disease produces such intense facial pain that it is known as the suicide disease because it is the illness that causes the highest percentage of voluntary deaths.

Morata did not want to give up, but at times he felt so unable to cope with the physical and mental demands of a competition like the Euros that he considered quitting. On Sunday, already crowned European champion and after having collected the trophy as captain, Morata revealed the influence that Bojan Krkic and Andrés Iniesta had had on him not voluntarily withdrawing from Luis de la Fuente’s squad. “If it weren’t for Andrés Iniesta and Bojan (Krkic) I wouldn’t have played in this Euros. They’ve gone through moments like the ones I’ve gone through. And they’ve shown me that there is light at the end of the tunnel,” he confessed with watery eyes before the microphones of TVE1.

In those days when even his teammates at Atlético watched with concern how one day when he went out to train he wanted to take on the world and another day he was exhausted and without strength in the gym, Morata got in touch with his coach Adriá Carmona. He knew that he had dealt with Bojan at Milan, who had given up on Euro 2008 due to emotional health problems. “Since Álvaro knew Bojan’s case, they were in contact through different messages and private chats, but they never got to see each other, they don’t know each other personally,” say sources close to Bojan. Morata’s closest circle also recognises the help that Bojan and Iniesta have provided: “Andrés has always encouraged him to keep going, they have spoken many times. In Bojan’s case, they didn’t just talk about Álvaro, he also gave him advice so that as captain of the national team he could look after and protect Lamine Yamal or Nico Williams. Because of what happened to him, Bojan is very sensitive to young boys who reach the elite and success earlier than normal.” Since September 2023, Bojan has been the coordinator of the Barcelona football area. His work focuses on monitoring and helping the youth players to manage both the success and the anxiety that he himself experienced at just 17 years old. Luis Aragonés called him up for a friendly against France in Malaga. After going out to inspect the state of the grass at La Rosaleda, he entered the dressing room and began to feel dizzy. Next to him was Iniesta, who experienced the episode first hand. A year later, as he himself has acknowledged in various interviews, the death of his friend and Espanyol player, Dani Jarque, caused him to become depressed before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, in which he scored the goal that gave Spain its first and only World Cup. Iniesta relapsed into a pre-season with Barcelona.

“In the case of Andrés, he and Morata have known each other for a long time and have had conversations. Álvaro wanted to be very grateful, and they too for the mention,” said the same sources close to both Bojan and Iniesta.

The public and definitive endorsement for not giving up on the Euros came from the coach himself. De la Fuente was aware of his problems a month before the start of the Euros, in an interview with Teledeporte he said: “He will go to the Euros, firstly because he is our captain, and secondly because he has had an exceptional behaviour. I have no doubts, he is one of those players who has sometimes performed better for the national team than he has for his club.”

This is not the first time that Morata has gone through a mental crisis. At Euro 2021 he had a bad time due to the criticism he received for his mistakes in front of goal. “There were times when I would wake up in my room and not feel like doing anything. Until I went down to breakfast and saw my teammates or spoke to my wife on the phone and I regained the desire to do everything,” he confessed in an interview with this newspaper.

Morata has been working with the coach Adriá Carmona. This was one of the promises of the Barcelona youth team who had a discreet career, below the expectations he generated as a youth player. Carmona knows first-hand what it is like to cross the desert in elite sport and Morata has been through many. Between this, the treatment followed based on aerosols, vapours, a medicine whose use was reported to UEFA and which took effect, plus the conversations with Bojan and Iniesta, Morata was able to go to the Euros. “There are people who give you life. The support of these people is worth more than scoring 20 goals. They have taught me that there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

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