Thiago Alcantara (29 years old) is one of Luis Enrique's permanent fixtures. The Liverpool midfielder is a formidable talker. He talks about football with the passion with which he plays it. Due to his category and hierarchy, he has been chosen as the model for the new elastic of the Adidas Spanish National Team that goes on sale today. After posing attends AS in La Futbolería.
How is the new shirt of the National Team?
La Roja will always be La Roja and we compete against other teams that wear red and we have this one that is super cool, white. Is beautiful!
Why did you choose Spain over Brazil?
My brother Rafa chose Brazil because he was born there and he always had more affection than I, who also love Brazil, because my whole family is from there, but I have spent most of my life here in Spain. I grew up here in Spain, I have lived Spanish football for as long as I can remember, it happened naturally.
He has won 24 titles with Barça and Bayern. And with Spain Under-17 and Under-21 he has been champion, his challenge now is to continue winning with Liverpool and win with the senior team.
Every year and since you are little you dream of winning everything possible, winning all three points, winning a trophy, winning whatever. But when you reach a professional stage you think about competitiveness, what motivates you and gives you joy is to win every game and then the titles arrive. What you have achieved does not work for you and everything is new to me every year, every season is a new challenge.
Thiago Alcántara is a regular on Luis Enrique's list, how do you see this Spain? Are you excited?
Of course! I'd be just as excited if these three games now were friendly instead of qualifying for the Qatar World Cup. Coming to the National Team is a reward and it means that you are doing well in your team and individually. It is an atypical time in which we are going to play the World Cup qualifying phase with a European Championship ahead of us. Thanks to the coach and his coaching staff, we are now focusing on the three qualifying games for the World Cup, especially the one in Greece, which is the first. We have a fantastic group in this National Team, a lot of young people and people with experience, and that union is very good.
How has Thiago adapted to the style of Klopp, a football more of transitions than the 'tiqui taca' of La Masía in which he grew up?
In the end, what we all want is to play in a winning style. I have been lucky enough to play for two teams that throughout their history have had a winning style like Barça and Bayern and right now I am in one, Liverpool, which also has that winning gene. It's a different league, but it only changes the way we want to play, the way the matches are planned is different from Bayern and Bayern was different from Barça. It is a time of evolution, of learning. You have to be better than the previous year if possible.
How does Liverpool football change, what to do when you have the ball and when you don't have it, in the transitions? Luis Enrique, Klopp, Guardiola … what nuances do you see in each one?
It is not a comparison between coaches only, but also of the type of players you have next to you. Now we have some bullets at the top that with a deep ball help us a lot, then at the foot they also solve many aspects. You have that option of being able to play both types of balls. In the Premier the time of the ball in play is greater than in other competitions. And the duels also change, in the Premier you live continuously in a duel and that is the difference with other leagues.
In the National Team we have to play with two 'world top' pivots like Busquets and Rodri. At times Luis Enrique has put Thiago as a center midfielder as well. Where do you prefer to play there or indoors at 1-4-3-3?
We come to the National Team to play whatever the coach asks of us. I feel comfortable in any position in the midfield and I feel comfortable in any other position to try to be as versatile as possible. We have great players and we adapt with the football intelligence that all teammates have to be able to play in any way to win and to dominate what we like the most and what has characterized Spanish football in recent years.
Do we have a block to get closer to those who win after the disappointments after having won the European Championship, the World Cup and the European Championship?
The latest results can give us a certain perspective, super positive, of where this National Team is going, of what is being worked on in this Ciudad del Fútbol de Las Rozas with the coach. With this perspective it is obvious that we are able to dream of winning, but then football is day by day, the daily training, the game, and we cannot lose that hunger and that ambition that has made us win those games in recent months.
Sergio Ramos is six games away from being the player who has played the most games for his national team in football history. What is it like to play next to a myth?
Sergio is great to play with. Years go by and you keep learning from him, he keeps evolving, he keeps wanting to compete, his main characteristic is this ambition, this fight and he transmits it to us in the National Team and we can learn from an uncle who with such success and with such recognition of football still wanting more.
Better as a teammate than as a rival in a few weeks with Real Madrid against Liverpool in the Champions League.
I love having Sergio as a teammate in the National Team and when I become a rival, he will be my rival.
The coronavirus pandemic has prevented him from seeing Anfield with people, 'The Kop' full of flags …
It is a change of country, club, stadium and you have the expectation not only of seeing the public of your stadium, which will be beautiful to see Anfield full, but also the experience of learning about this new country every day. For football fans like us, football loses much of its essence without people in the stands. We are competing with empty stadiums and we have had to relearn because since we were little we have played in fields without people, with screaming parents. We knew how to do it and we were used to playing with people supporting us and even with people against us. Now we have got used to playing with the public, but we miss so much that there are people in the stadiums that there is a little yearning every day.
His father wouldn't yell a lot when he came to see him when he was little. Is there a bite with Mazinho because he is world champion?
Upside down! Every feat and every individual achievement by a family member, a friend, any person who is fond of him, there is no kind of pique, there is a happiness that you want to be a part of. It is a pleasure to be able to share our conquests with him, mine and my brother's.
His father will want a World Cup now from Spain and Brazil …
He only has one more than us! (laughs)
He has won the Champions League with Barça and with Bayern, now he will aim to win it with Liverpool.
Winning that competition is always very difficult and when you win it, it doesn't matter which team you win it with. The Champions League is the peak of the year. I am privileged to have won the Champions League twice, it is very difficult to experience those two moments because it is really difficult to win this competition. All the players, the best in Europe, want to achieve it at the end of the season. We fight among all the greats of Europe to win it.
Did you have a chance to return to the League before going to the Premier League?
I had options to return, but it was clear to me. Leaving Bayern was to be able to live the experience of the Premier, a very competitive league. When I got the call from the coach and the club it was an easy decision to choose the destination, but it was difficult to choose if I really wanted to leave Bayern. In the end it happened and I am very happy.
Why are Premier League clubs better than in La Liga today in the Champions League?
Although I have played in both leagues, it is difficult to make the comparison because I did it in three stages of my career. There have been years in which Spain has won the Champions League and Europa League and with finalists. It's like all streaks, when you find the point where things work, you work on it and you have a successful time. The same happens with competitions and countries.
So there is no physical reason? With the coronavirus pandemic there is a great physical demand on footballers.
More than physical I think it is psychological. The plus of the public is missing in the final moments of the game, which gives you that physical point. It is something psychological. As in the day to day to be able to do little for the city with the family, and more in a new city. You go from home to training and from training to home and you enter a dynamic in which it is just that. Soccer is much more, you have to live day to day, the approach with the fans. I have my son who is a football fan at four years old and not being able to take him to the stadium is frustrating for me and for him. When you open everything, it will be much better for everyone.
What team is your son on?
His father's, if he is not punished! (laughs)
Were you able to sign for Madrid in 2013 for 25 million euros?
We are talking about many years ago. I don't remember the situation. I'm already in another club from which I signed in 2013. What if Roberto Baggio had scored the penalty against Brazil in 94? Well, just as Tafarel, the next one, would have stopped.
And last summer you were able to sign for Madrid?
I am not to speculate on summer. I don't like to speculate on this. I like to talk about football.
How has the Champions League draw that paired Madrid and Liverpool been taken?
We have received the pairing with all the respect in the world, with respect for a knockout of a Champions League quarter-final, wanting to be able to play the matches. It is a wonderful competition, against a fantastic team. We take Madrid with the respect we owe.