Benjamin: “I'm not afraid of Real Madrid, I think Valladolid will get something positive”

Benjamín Zarandona continues with his solidarity work in his mother's native country, Equatorial Guinea. For 12 years it has been raising funds, clothes and any other sports equipment to carry it and that the children of the schools of Malabo and other cities may have sports equipment. In this case, he has had a shipment of clothes from Real Valladolid, more than 80 boxes that will be distributed by Benjamin himself in the near future: “This time the pandemic has made it difficult for us to carry all the material, part of which has been waiting for transport for months.”

The necessary logistics are complicated but Benjamin has good allies: “The movements in Spain are carried out by the SEUR Foundation and then from Valencia it is ZAZU Logistic that is in charge of taking it to Guinea. When I have all the material in Malabo, I will go to deliver it.” Fate are the schools Padre Claret, Santa Bibiana, Spanish school, Salesianos, among others and as explained by Benjamin “they will use these clothes to train and for the various school competitions that they dispute. The truth is that the clothes are passed from brother to brother as they grow, in such a way that it is used until the end, so that sometimes you can already see the wear of garments that we have been wearing for a long time, but that they take care of and continue to use, “so it is very common to see many Real Valladolid uniforms and kits on the streets of the city. Not long ago, Benjamin took home the artificial turf that was removed from Los Anexos, donated by Valladolid, and which is installed in one of those schools, providing service to many teams.

The visit of Real Madrid is special for Benjamin who has a positive feeling: “I'm not afraid of Real Madrid, I think that Real Valladolid can get something positive since this season has not been bad against the greats, teams that open a lot and I think the key will be that we do not score a goal in the first 15 or 20 minutes. ” The ex from Valladolid and Betis has many memories of his clashes with Real Madrid: “The year of my debut in Primera I remember the match at the Bernabéu, we lost, Chendo scored … but going out to warm up at that stadium is already impressive, it's like dreaming; then you see your idols whom you had seen up to that moment on TV and when the game starts you realize the quality it has, the speed at which they move the ball … “, but what he does not forget are the victories against those big teams: “With Betis we won 0-1 at the Bernabéu with a goal from Finidi and the party in the dressing room was incredible, but the one that moved me the most was the 1-2 victory at the Camp Nou because it was with Real Valladolid.” Motivation in those games does not have to be looked for, it just appears: “When you play at home you have the feeling that you can beat them and that there are more possibilities than when you visit them, the pity is that there cannot be fans to help and push the team.”