The third day of work of the Spanish team at its base of operations in Donaueschingen began yesterday with a corridor above the training field that the two members of the expedition who were celebrating their birthday crossed, Javier Alfaro, the podiatrist, and the goalkeeper Unai Simón, who was celebrating his 27th, once again away from home. “Since it’s here, you’re not going to complain about being here,” he jokes.
Ask. In the hotel they have put a chess board. Have they already released it?
Answer. Yesterday David (Raya) and I premiered it. We were playing cards, we weren’t supposed to play cards and we said, shall we play chess?
Q. Zubimendi says that you beat him, that he plays a lot for Athletic.
R. I play with Óscar de Marcos, who is a little bit above me. I have a good teacher. We play Chess, each one from home. I have never played on the board with Demar. With Dani (Olmo) I have played on the board.
Q. Have you played since you were a child?
R. When I was little I played. I left it and in confinement, as I was very bored, I played all the games, from tic-tac-toe to chess. It was very good to learn again. I started to investigate a little more, to look at strategies, openings, how to play, how to develop and finish games. The good thing about chess is that you don’t depend on referees or anything external. In football you can always depend on an offside call, or a handball. Chess is you against another, face to face, and if you lose it is because the other has been better than you. You can’t blame anyone. It is a very beautiful sport for that reason, because it is you with your head fighting against the other’s head. And it is a battle.
Q. Víctor Valdés said that if he chose again he would not be a goalkeeper. Would you repeat?
R. Yes, yes, I really enjoy football. If I had not reached elite levels or the professional world, I probably would not have played as a goalkeeper, because what I like is the adrenaline of competition: being in matches with the national team, matches this year in Europe with Athletic… And I like being a goalkeeper and feeling that adrenaline of big games. I wouldn’t be playing on my hometown team. I would dedicate myself to what I had studied.
Chess is a very beautiful sport because you can’t blame someone else.
Q. His father recorded his training sessions. You liked him a lot, he had been a goalkeeper…?
R. My father has always been a very calm father. I see every kafre on the football fields that makes me a little ashamed. My father was a person who stayed away from him, he stayed quietly in his corner. He was one of those fathers that when you went to the game he would tell you to enjoy it and when he came back he would see if he had enjoyed the game. From time to time he recorded the games. He wasn’t one of these tactics either… In my house we haven’t experienced football in a very intense way. He left me the videos and said: “Unai, you have the videos there, if you want to see them, you see them.” When I was little, when you played well you watched the games. If you played badly, you said there you stay…
Q. Can you see it now?
R. You have to analyze each game and see if you could do something more or if you did it well.
Q. This team went from the doubts generated by the defeat in Glasgow in the second game with Luis de la Fuente to winning the Nations League three months later. How did you experience that change?
R. I was not in that call, but I spoke with the players and they gave peace of mind. The Glasgow game was a thriller and against Norway it was played very well. As we were playing with Luis Enrique. And we appeared in a Nations League where the press did not help much to give a good atmosphere to the competition, they were not convinced of the coach. We were. He knows the players here very well and knows football very well. I have coincided with Luis and I have won with him an under 19 and a under 21 championship. We knew that we had a spectacular group, and as soon as we beat Italy, we knew that against Croatia we had to play a great game, but that we could win the title .
Q. Is the group spectacular technically, humanly…?
R. We all know the players and we know that technically and tactically we are very good. But long competitions, like a Euro Cup or a World Cup, are won by the players, but above all by the teams. Those in which when a player is wrong the others support him on the field, when someone makes a mistake, there is another who solves it and does not reproach him for anything, who says, come on, go… And that is what I see.
Q. After the Nations final against Croatia, which ended with a penalty shootout in which he saved two, he didn’t really like talking about it. Because?
R. Because it seems that the final was only about penalties and it made me very angry that people asked me only about penalties when we played a great game. I remember very well that we did high-intensity runs in the 116th minute, in the middle of June, when the season was ending. And people only focused on penalties, and it made me angry.
Q. But it was his time.
R. Yeah, but I don’t want that moment. I want to talk about what we did against Croatia, about how they barely created any chances for us, about what we created. The penalties were the most decisive thing, and that’s why they talk about it. People who don’t understand football talk about it. There are people who think they know about football and don’t. And it is believed to be Pep Guardiola…
Long tournaments are won by the players, but above all by the teams
Q. Do you still have the piece of paper with the instructions for the shootout against Switzerland in the quarterfinals in which you stopped two in the last European Championship?
R. Yes Yes. I have it at home.
Q. Do you keep a lot of things?
R. No, but that penalty shootout was quite important for me due to the fact that the previous day against Croatia I had made a mistake where I was exposed a lot. It was an important penalty shootout for me because of how I had played against Switzerland, who had played a very good game coming from the previous day. I kept it as a reminder of that ability to overcome. Not because of what it says on the paper, but because of what it means.
Q. How do you live with the error?
R. If someone makes a mistake and is eliminated from the game, it seems disrespectful to me. So, if I make a mistake, I know I screwed up, I know I messed up, but at least I have to keep trying to do my thing out of respect for the other ten on the field.
Q. Does it stay in your head for a while?
R. No. The good thing about football, and more so here in the national team, is that you interact a lot with the ball. After 30 seconds you have another action and it goes away from your head. You get home and you die… You get home and you watch the play again…
Q. The good ones too or just the bad ones?
R. You also like to see the good ones. The good ones are always to come to you, the others are to learn and to see what has happened. You can’t be left alone with the bad, nor with the good. You have to give a little balance.
Q. In the summer of 2018, you were Athletic’s fourth goalkeeper, and they loaned you to Elche. But Kepa goes to Chelsea, Iago Herrerín is injured and Remiro does not renew. How important is luck in your career?
R. At Bilbao Athletic we don’t get promoted and I knew I had to find a life outside. With the goalkeepers he had above him he was not going to be able to play for Athletic. It wasn’t my time yet. When I am already adapted in Elche, with a small group of fairly close players, they call me to come back. And as soon as they call you to return to Athletic you say: “Holy crap, let’s see if I can… I’m already second.” I come back and the day before the game Berizzo tells me that I’m going to debut, that they didn’t want Alex to play. I played very well those seven days, until Iago recovered and, the following year, Gaizka Garitano gave me the opportunity to start the season, and from then until now everything has been great. You have to look for luck, work for it, but in football you always have to have it.
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