AEK Larnaca is repeating the ‘Iraola formula’, although this time the manager of the Cypriot team is David Catalan (Barcelona, 1980). Like Andoni, the Barcelona player is making his debut as a coach in Cyprus, where he has reconverted after a long career as a full-back – left in this case. “I am feeling very comfortable”, he discovers after reaping six victories, two draws and one defeat in the first eight league games and with the firm objective that the club return to compete in Europe. Catalá played seven seasons at AEK and has the difficult task of managing footballers who were teammates and are friends: “I thought the relationship would be the same, but I’m realizing that it won’t. You can go have a beer or a coffee, but it’s not like before“.
First months as a professional coach, how are you doing?
So far very good. I am feeling very comfortable. We have started the league very well and everything is going as we expected. I have been here in Cyprus for many years and I knew the club and many players very well. I know how everything works here and that has helped me to be more comfortable. The first months are being positive.
AEK Larnaca has been trying for many years to go one step further to allow them to fight for a league championship, is that their goal?
Yes, the goal is that. AEK Larnaca is a club that has grown a lot in recent years. We were close to winning leagues, we won cups, we were in Europe … But we need that little push that allows us to finish taking the leap to fight for a league. But it is not easy. We are the 5th best budget in Cyprus. People want more, but it is not easy. We are not one of the teams with the most history in the country and we compete against clubs with more budget and more social mass.
Will that moment come with David Catalá on the bench?
I hope so. I am very excited. The group is very good and we hope to do great things. I hope we can at least return to Europe, which is the club’s priority goal. Everything we can add to that will be a gift.
Was being a coach something that was already around your head when you hung up your boots?
Yes, in recent years I saw that I liked it. He was beginning to be more aware of what the coach was saying. I was lucky enough to leave football very late and, with each year that passed, I thought that it could be the last and prepared to take the next step. I was able to extend my career to the maximum and I was fortunate that, after so long at the club, they offered me to continue being part of the Imanol Idiákez ‘staff’ and combine it with the subsidiary. Being able to combine the two was a brutal apprenticeship.
How are you seeing yourself as a coach?
At first I lacked experience. He was not used to managing a group. But being a club that I know very well and have things so clear … People welcomed me very well and I am taking it as an apprenticeship. I learn something every day. I have an immense desire to improve. You are running into obstacles, but every day you learn something new. In Spain I had many meetings with coaches that I know and I have tried to copy what I like about each one.
Who do you copy the most from?
I have been fortunate to meet very good coaches. Andoni Iraola, for example, directed me at AEK. He insisted a lot on pressing up, pressing after loss … It is something that is seen now in the Ray. Imanol Idiákez also marked me a lot. He loved going out with the ball played from behind, he alternated the line of three with the line of four, he worked hard to find spaces. At AEK we have always liked having the ball and I try to keep that identity reflected in the team. We seek to be protagonists.
You have found that players who were your teammates are now at your command, how are you handling it?
It is not easy because, in addition, more than one is a friend. You have to separate the friendship with the sports issue and it is difficult to make decisions, but I am lucky to be very natural, very close to the player, and I think they understand it. We have to separate friendship with what I think is best for the team. At the moment they are accepting it, they are doing very well, and anything is spoken naturally. To be honest, it is something that can be carried naturally.
Has anyone been pissed off yet?
Not pissed off, but you see that when they don’t play they are a bit sadder. They are football things. They will happen whether or not they are friends.
Being companions, he stays. To have dinner with the families, to have a drink … Being a coach and a player, is the relationship the same?
I thought it would be the same, but I’m realizing that it can’t be the same. Of course you can meet for a beer or coffee. In fact I have, but it can’t be like before. Like it or not, there is the relationship of friendship and that of coach-player. It’s complicated, but we try to do our best.
Do you like to be the protagonist or do you stay in the background?
The protagonist is the player. It is the one that has to stand out. We, the coaches, are here to support. I will be the first in everything that is to support the team, give advice and be with the player. But if what you have to do is come out in defense of my players, I do consider myself a protagonist.
Have you already realized how ungrateful it is to be a coach? It sure works a lot more than people think.
My first year, which was when I was an assistant, was when I really realized how to work within a ‘staff’ and what life was like as a coach. He’s super ungrateful. The hours of work that nobody watches, all the videos you see, the meetings with your coaching staff, you are thinking about it all day … And whether it goes well or it goes bad, you are always going to have criticism. There will never be a coach who is not going to be criticized for a season. I do not know, we are still masoch, but we must be prepared for criticism. When you go from being a player to a coach, that’s what you notice the most.
You say that being a coach was something that you had been thinking about for a while, but there will be other footballers who dedicate themselves to training just to take advantage of the pull or what they have learned for years even if it is not their passion.
Time always tells if you are a good or bad coach, but the fact of having been a professional footballer and having dedicated yourself to football for years is always a plus. There are very good coaches who have never been footballers. If you have a vocation and are worth it, you can succeed, but I think having been a player helps a lot.
You are always prepared for victories, are you prepared for defeats?
Logically not. It is carried in another way. Luckily we have played 10 games this season and we have only reaped one defeat, which was also on the last day. Everyone knew that the moment was coming and we had to be prepared. Starting with such a good dynamic is an easy defeat to digest, but we have to know how to handle it. The players are very involved, but losses are never welcome. We have to learn from them.
What is the level of Cypriot football?
I think it is an unknown football, but this year we have five European places: two in the Champions League, one in the Europa League and two in the Conference. In a 12-team league, five are going to Europe. That shows how well Cypriot clubs are competing in Europe. It’s a minor league, of course. It is difficult to compare, but I suppose that the level of the teams that we are above could be compared to some of the Spanish Second Division. Things are being done well and there are better and better players in Cyprus.
He has seven footballers at his command and people may think that, because they are compatriots, he can give them more opportunities. Is it a difficult subject to handle?
I don’t know more opportunities, what I do know is that the Spanish footballer thinks it better to come when he sees that there are already Spaniards in the club. We have a very Spanish methodology and I think that the player who does not know the league so much can be carried away by these things. They will not play anymore because they are Spanish, but communication and adaptation will be easier. That’s clear.
Acorán, Mikel González, Abraham González, Cabezali, Rubén Martínez, Espinosa … What a clan!
Much mythical. They are very good people, we are very lucky. For many years now, very good Spanish players are passing through AEK. More or less veterans, but we have always been very lucky that the people who have come are great people, wanting to fight to win titles or play in Europe. They have not been able to do it in Spain and they have the illusion of doing it here. For them, that is a plus.
Good job from the sports director, in this case Xavi Roca. I know first-hand that he spends many hours on it.
Yes, Xavi here has done a very good job. In his first stage he gave a brutal change to the way of working of the club. He is doing a great job and that is something that shows in the results, in the players he brings … AEK fans are delighted with his work. The numbers support him.
To return to Iraola, did you see when he was at your command that he could be an important coach?
I was curious because he was inexperienced and I was yet to see what it would be like as a coach. But he came up with very clear ideas from the beginning. I knew how I wanted to play, how I wanted to defend … I had no doubt and that is something that stuck with me. With him we enter the group stage of the Europa League, but here the people are very hot and have no patience. They want results, but it was a time when we combined Europe with the league and that took its toll on us. In the Cypriot league there is a large percentage of teams that change coaches.
Are you living in fear of losing your job?
You live with it. We already know how it works, that at any time it can touch you. But it’s something I don’t want to think about. I prefer to go week to week because otherwise I will go crazy.
What makes you most proud of your few months as a coach so far?
I came with the idea of being protagonists with the ball and the team had some doubts at the beginning. But seeing that they are already convinced is very satisfying. I like it. I am very critical of myself and I will never be satisfied, but the way we are evolving I really like it.
What is the goal of the season?
Europe. The aim of the club and what we want is to return to Europe, but we have started so well that people have already started talking about us being candidates for the title. And I think so, that because of the quality of the players we have, we can aspire to win the league. But we have to be realistic. We are AEK, the fourth or fifth team in the country by history and budget. It will not be easy at all. There are many teams ahead, but we are going to compete until the end.