“With the selection, a title is a title, they are big words”
MADRID, 13 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish midfielder Dani Olmo is clear about the value of being called up by the national team and for this reason he tries to carry out each concentration “as if it were the first and the last, with a lot of responsibility”, especially if a title is at stake, as is the case of the ‘Final Four’ of the League of Nations, “another opportunity to show that there is a team for great things”.
“I value being here a lot. I try to take it in each concentration as if it were the first and the last, with a lot of responsibility. Now, we have this for the League of Nations, two games, the first against Italy, and we have to face it as a final because we are a very short ‘step’ away from being able to win a title with the national team”, stressed Dani Olmo in an interview with Europa Press during the concentration in the Ciudad del Fútbol de Las Rozas (Madrid).
The Catalan is clear that “with the selection, a title is a title.” “Whether it’s the League of Nations, the European Championship or the World Cup, they’re big words. It’s possible that we can compete for it and we’re going to go for it,” he stressed.
And winning this competition could serve as a kind of liberation for a national team that hasn’t won anything since Euro 2012. That meant a historic treble in the world of football, something that for the RB Leipzig player “is not easy” and that “no team has been capable” of doing “what that generation” of Spanish footballers did.
“Now it’s another generation. We young people, those of us who have spent less time or more time, are also lucky to also be able to coincide with Jesús Navas, with Jordi Alba, or at the time with Sergio Busquets, who have had the opportunity to be part of of that generation and they have taught us, we have learned a lot and we are still going on. And now this new generation, who has not yet had the luck to win any title with the national team, we are motivated and also prepared for it”, he remarked.
The first step will be to prevail, as they already did in 2021, against Italy, a team also in search of joy that compensates for being left out of the World Cup in Qatar. “I imagine that they will approach the game in the same way as we do. For them it is also an opportunity to make up for it after the World Cup and for us the same because it is another opportunity to continue winning and showing that we have a team for great things,” Olmo stressed.
“It’s going to be a nice game for the neutral spectator. We’re going to try to do what we’ve always done, dominate the game, attack, make chances, score goals, we’re not going to change the idea at all,” the international midfielder explained. , who has six goals in 30 games with the ‘Red’, although he believes that he could have scored “a few more”.
“DE LA FUENTE KNOWS ME WELL AND KNOWS WHERE I CAN PERFORM”
The Terrassa player is one of those who already knew Luis de la Fuente from his time in the lower categories and assures that he is seeing the coach “well” in this concentration despite the criticism after the defeat in Glasgow against Scotland. “He is calm, with confidence. Here we all have to go together. We are two games away from being able to lift a title, so we are going to go for them all together,” he said.
The man from La Rioja started him in his debut against Norway, in the position of extreme right, another example of the versatility on the offensive front of the Catalan, which is where he feels “most comfortable”. “In my team I play more than ’10’, but here since there is no reference, I play more on the wing. The coach knows me well, we have been together for many years and he knows where I can perform”, he highlighted.
Dani Olmo was one of those who doubled the Eurocup and Games in the summer of 2021 and has spent several seasons with a large accumulation of matches, an aspect that has led him to focus on “preparing well”. “I was unlucky after the Games and the Euro Cup to have two injuries in a row and I finished that season with a lot of fatigue,” he confesses.
“I tried to learn from all this, but it is true that these last two years have not been the best on a personal level due to injuries, but now I feel very good, physically strong and working to be well,” he admitted.
For the 25-year-old footballer, that summer of 2021 was “an incredible experience”, which he would not mind repeating next year, where the two tournaments coincide again, although he also knows that for Paris 2024 it is not up to his “generation “The Games are an incredible experience and it would be unforgettable to enjoy them again, especially here in Europe, in France, so we’ll see. Little by little, there is a lot left, first the EURO, for which you have to qualify and in which I hope you can be,” he said.
At the concentrations, Dani Olmo spends part of his free time playing chess, one of his hobbies. “I play with Unai (Simón). At the moment he beats me, but this has just started,” he said with a smile. “There may be some similarity with soccer in the tactics, in also thinking about what the opponent can do, in what step he can take and then you defend yourself or attack or whatever. Yes, there may be some similarity, but there was not thought,” he said.
“I BELIEVE IN THE LEIPZIG PROJECT”
Dani Olmo arrived at the national team’s concentration with good news since he won the German Cup for the second consecutive year. “It was the goal after winning it last year, we wanted to defend it and bring it back home, so I’m very happy,” he commented.
In addition, days before that final, he renewed until 2027 with RB Leipzig, endorsed by “the project” that the club’s General Director, Max Eberl, transmitted to him “from day one”, and “also by the confidence” of his coach, Marco Rose.
“I had doubts because I knew I was ready to take the next step, but I think I’m fine there, I’m happy. In the end we have renewed and I believe in the idea, in the club’s project. I want to win the Bundesliga next year with him Leipzig”, argued the Spaniard.
And this extension postpones a possible return to Spain a little longer, from which he left very young to play for Dinamo Zagreb. “We’ll see, we’ll see. In the end now we have to be focused on the present. In the future, anything can happen. Now I’ve renewed and I’m here in the national team enjoying myself, I’m happy, so we’ll see”, he sentenced.