Calleja: “At Real Madrid they teach you to be a winner”

Javier Calleja (Alcalá de Henares, 43 years old) was ceased in Vitoria in December. He doesn’t want to hold any grudges, but he regrets that they didn’t let him develop his project. He was signed for two years, something new in Vitoria. in Villarreal demonstrated its worth. As a player he also accumulated an interesting resume. He went through the white quarry as a player.

What do you currently spend your days in?

The first weeks after the dismissal I totally disconnected. We have had to change houses, we are dealing with works and moving. I’ve been thinking about football again for a week.

He misses the nerve of the bench, of course…

It’s in my blood, my body asks for it, I miss it, I don’t want to be in this situation, what I want is to be on the bench.

You put a lot of hope in the Alavés project, right?

A lot, it motivated me, I really wanted to start a path that I didn’t know how far it could go. For any project you need time and belief in it. Alavés deserved to give my best version, but everything was half done, because more importance was given to the losing streak than to believing in a long time to do something different.

When last season arrived, the miracle of permanence culminated, and two days to finish the season. That’s there.

Over time I give it more importance. I think it has a lot of value. Few believed in it and called us crazy, although it worked and, from then on, there was talk of a medium-term project. But in football there is no patience and it has not been possible to finish what was started.

The truth is that he has had to experience strange things: in Villarreal they stopped him and after 50 days, he returned. Later the project was given to Emery justifying a leap in ambition. And now this thing about Alavés…

My career as a coach is peculiar. I start in the lower categories of Villarreal and when they trust me for the first team, the results are very good and they bet on renewal. A season starts badly, they terminate me and in the end they turn to me again to achieve something different from the previous one, permanence. The following year we were fifth again. Every time a goal has been asked of me, it has been met. At Villarreal the seasons have been quite successful. When everything went wrong, they hired me again for another goal that we achieved. A little later, I embarked on an important challenge, knowing that I came from a team with a clear game idea with which I feel totally identified by a club that at that time was totally the opposite. It is possible to stay in the First Division for another year and when I think that it is time to bet on consolidating that idea and doing important things for the future, thinking that this future was not immediate and that time was needed, football becomes impatient and they start rush. Decisions are made with which some agree and others, like me, not so much.

They told him that it was suicide to come to Vitoria, but he went on to say that it was the best decision of his life. Did the dismissal end up giving the reason to those who commented on something so worrying?

‘Fifty-fifty’. I stand by what I said. I came from Villarreal and everyone labeled me with an idea, a style. I needed a challenge like the one from Alavés to show everyone that it wasn’t just that, that we were also capable of taking advantage of it in a totally different team. Everything went well, that’s why I said it was the best decision I had ever made. It made me a better coach. I lived another series of experiences that have enriched me. Then there is the issue of renewal.

What happened?

When we sit at the table to talk about the project and the future, I imagine it with different eyes.

The results have not been much better after dismissing him, although he will respect Mendilibar, who directed him at Osasuna when you were a player.

It is not a question of one coach or another, we must not lose sight of the perspective of the objective. Due to staff and investment, Alavés must try to fight for permanence. That’s where he is, he is very patient, you have to have a lot of mental strength and know that there are four or five teams in that same fight and there are many points to be played. He is in a position where he would not have met the goal right now, but there are many games left. If the goal was to be among the top ten or get into Europe, of course we would talk about a failure or that expectations are not being met. Permanence is within reach, although they start at a disadvantage because they are four points away from it. When he is consistent with what he is fighting for, he must continue until the end, you have to be patient and when the season is over and you see if one thing or another has been achieved, the assessment is made. Right now we have to be all together, because it is not unattainable.

Let’s talk about Madrid, the next rival. He trained there from 9 to 20 years old, with Del Bosque at the head of the Ciudad Deportiva. Does that shirt mark for life?

Without a doubt, it marks you, forms you, teaches you a lot. Having belonged to Madrid and having worn that shirt and having been able to play in the lower categories has marked me in my career on a personal and professional level. They teach you to be a winner, to believe in what you do, to feel that each game is the most important you have to play. The mentality of winning everything, the great comebacks… are not by chance, they instill it in you from a young age.

There goes Ancelotti, without losing hope at his age…

It is exemplary. Coaches like him, with that trajectory, his experience… and that they keep that flame alive with hope of wanting to do things better and keep winning, that they don’t get tired, it’s a lesson for everyone.