“Luis Enrique knows what everything is about, he reminds me of Luis”

TO Joan Capdevila, by profession champion of Europe (2008) Y World Champion (2010), meet Swiss on the near horizon of the Selection it scrambled his memory. He has in his head all the details of the antecedent played in Durban on June 16, 2010. It was his world premiere after the fiasco of World Cup 2006, when it was left off the list at the last minute.

Switzerland is coming, Joan!

Let us all tremble … For me, Switzerland, even if they won that first game, it brings back good memories. Against them I played the first game in a World Cup. When the referee whistled at the beginning of the game I said to myself, oysters Joan, now you really are a World Cup player. I'll tell you … In the warm-up I was afraid of injuring myself. He was obsessed with the game starting. I was very excited. A World Cup is a World Cup and I wanted to play for at least a minute … I had almost thrown in the towel of being a World Cup player, I was 32 years old.

And it turns out that together with Casillas and Piqué he played every minute of every game from the first to the last.

I would not have imagined it in my life. In the end everything had a happy ending but the truth is that that defeat alarmed us all.

And now that Switzerland is back on the road and Spain is the favorite again, would you not recommend Luis Enrique to give the players that World Cup match so that they do not fall into the temptation of feeling superior before their time?

No man no. They are different situations. It is true that now anyone can beat anyone, as is being seen. Luckily these last two games have put the team where it deserves. Before, a strange atmosphere was palpable in the street and now there is talk of winning the European Championship. Not so bad then or now to get chest. A mistake sends you home. And let them tell France.

That is the problem, that now the euphoria shines.

Luis Enrique now has more of a psychological problem than a football problem before him, which is clear to him and the players too. Being favorites is very distracting and not helpful.

But there Luis Enrique handles himself well, he reminds me of Luis Aragonés in extreme situations.

Yes, yes, me too. It has that character. He knows how to live very well with criticism, with praise. You know what it's all about. He is a coach who transmits a lot, that in the end is what matters, that the group believes in you. He has that temperament that Luis had of knowing how to carry everything and have everything under control and I don't think things will surpass him. It is very good for the group to know that the coach is clear about it, as happened to Luis with the Raúl issue, for example. The player says, oysters, this is a coach who goes for it all and that for the group is good. Luis Enrique's momentum is good …

We were talking about the game …

They are games that from the warm-up you have to smell the rival. Don't wait. Go out to dial as soon as possible. Not like it happened to us in the World Cup. That we thought, we'll get in, we'll get in, we didn't, and on top of that they gave us one. And then it's too late. From that South African game of 10, we won nine. The luck is that then we had margin of error, but now there is no margin in the quarterfinals. Maybe that day we did not go out with the necessary tension. In high competition you cannot give away even 20 minutes. The rival eats you. We have learned a lesson and the players already know what they are playing for.

Some veteran advice …

What I have no doubt is that they are going to get behind, like those of 2010 and they are going to leave us the initiative of the game. The important thing is that we do not have concentration errors. The normal thing is that we have 70 percent of possession and what we have to do is put it. Now we have 10 goals in two games, but I do not forget that if on the day of Sweden the game ended 4-0, nothing would have happened and everything that was mounted would not have been mounted, especially on social networks. Luckily there were none in my time. In South Africa we didn't even have WhatsApp. I can only say to the players that now is when the heart races, the adrenaline is different, you train differently, it comes as a rush and as the games go by, more. I am optimistic, but moderate. I don't like euphoria. I like to seek emotional balance.

And how was the change from Luis to Del Bosque? Two characters so different, two ways of being so different?

You adapt perfectly because the two of us caused the same respect between us. They both had that aurea when they entered the locker room and imposed. Each in their own way. They had sediment. And then it helped us a lot that the essence of the game was the same. Vicente put two or three touch-ups and the rest was all the same. I would even say that we won the World Cup playing worse than the European Championship. With 1-0, 1-0, 1-0 and suffering a lot. It was not the superiority we had in the semi-finals of the European Championship against Russia. We do not live such a game. We do not enjoy that much, footballingly speaking. It was a matchball in every game. We could not fail from the second day. In the Euro we play better.

Del Bosque always remembers what it cost him to leave him out of the team. He always says that each team had to have a Capdevila.

It is understandable that he no longer took me to Euro 2012. He was 33 years old, Jordi Alba was doing well. I'm happy for him, so he also has a Euro Cup, otherwise I would have it all … (ha, ha ha). When Vicente gave the squad list or the line-ups and some were left out, he felt it more than the players themselves. I got it. He is such a kind person that you couldn't even protest.

One day Del Bosque asked him for help …

Yes, I was surprised and I felt more of a protagonist than I could have expected. Before playing against Honduras. I have it in my memory. It was at lunch. The normal thing would have been for him to speak with Casillas or with Puyol, but it came to me, who was neither from Madrid nor from Barça. I didn't have the stripes of those people. I even felt important for a day. I wanted him to talk to the youngest, the game was very important, you had to win or win.

Maybe you, in the National Team, benefited from being neither from Madrid nor from Barça.

Maybe yes. I was also in the right place at the right time. The second left back was Arbeloa who was right-handed. If other colleagues had been, like in 2006, maybe the same thing happens to me.

In 2006 it was left at the gates …

Well there Luis played it for me … well let's say he bet on Pernía who had never been to any call and I had eaten the two years of qualification and then he does not take me, but hey football is like that. But of course I was 28 years old and I thought that I would no longer go to any World Cup and I was going to be left with the desire. Then he took me in 2008.

In the end he had a good and long career in the National Team.

At least I have a good taste in my mouth. Without playing for Barça or Madrid, playing 60 games is not bad at all. I can not complain. What I value the most is that now that I am retired people speak well of me and value my work. I always knew where my place was. My role. I accepted my role. I knew that the first were those of Barça and Madrid and I helped as much as I could. I knew my limitations and my shortcomings and I tried to help from the first day to the last.

The principles were not so good.

No. I went through a lot of personal and team vicissitudes. I met the National Team that did not win and the one that won everything. We had bad moments … After losing in Sweden, we played a friendly in Murcia against Argentina and people insulted us in training. They turned us green and nobody wanted to go to the National Team. How much did they call you … ufff and now everyone wants to go.