Guille Abascal, in the elite of the benches with 32 years: “I feel privileged”

“I’d rather lose than change my philosophy,” he said. Guille Abascal (Seville, 1989) after being thrashed out of the Panathinaikos stadium. At 32, the Andalusian could be squeezing his career as a footballer, but instead he is immersed in what is his fifth season on the bench. The current Volos coach played at La Masia. It was the ‘9’ of a team in which Jordi Alba and Giovani dos Santos were escorting him. The oldest, those of the generation of 87, were Piqué, Cesc or Messi. Almost nothing. There he learned to play, but he also understood that his thing was not to walk on the grass dressed in a short. “I went back to Sevilla, but I didn’t find the sense to continue playing. I could have lived off it perfectly, but I didn’t feel like. They told me to keep trying, to try other sites, but I was not motivated. Nor did I want to throw away everything I had learned in Seville and Barcelona, ​​so I decided to make a radical change and prepare to be a coach “, reveals to AS after storming La Tumba, the imposing PAOK stadium.

Guille Abascal has become the Revelation coach of the Greek Super League. His Volos, a club founded in 2017 that achieved a meteoric promotion to First from the hand of another Spanish coach, the Catalan Juan Ferrando, is third after having reaped four victories, a draw and a defeat in the first six days. It is the team with the most goals in the tournament, but also the highest scorer. “I like to have the ball and be vertical,” he says. the third youngest coach in one of the 20 European leagues with the highest UEFA coefficient -Only Edward Still (30 years old), Belgian Charleroi coach, and Francesco Farioli (32), at the controls of the Turkish Karagümrük- surpasses him-. “Age doesn’t matter, the only important thing is to find a club that lets you work. There are players who have been lucky enough to have great teachers, but I, for example, am only 32 years old and I already have more experience on the bench than a A recently retired player. I feel privileged. Within 10 years I will continue to be a young coach “, reflects Abascal, who went abroad” in search of a march “:” Actually I left with fear. “Maybe I can’t go back.” But I had confidence in myself and I knew I was ready for this adventure. “

His first stop was Switzerland, where he took the reins of Chiasso first and Lugano later. “From that stage I am left with the character and personality of the clubs to form projects and believe in young footballers. It is a culture that believes in sowing and then collecting.” From there he went to the Ascoli subsidiary, where he learned that “Italy is Italy”: “Wherever you go, football is lived 24 hours a day. You notice the pressure on people’s faces and that is very motivating. They don’t want to lose. and that causes a lot of pressure. ” Guille Abascal is only 32 years old and he already knows what it is like to face a multitude of challenges, although the most demanding may still have it ahead: “The problem with Greece is that everyone wants to be among the top six, but there are five big: Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, the two from Thessaloniki -PAOK and Aris- and AEK “. Volos, meanwhile, is managing to walk among giants thanks to its great field leadership and despite not having the social mass that the other two clubs in the city do, Olympiakos Volos and Niki Volos: “There are two Historic clubs and they are in the Second Division. We, who are the new ones, play in the First Division. It is something that is talked about in the city. We don’t have much fans, but those who come to the stadium support us and that is the important thing. “

The most faithful, those who go to the Panthessaliko Stadium every 15 days to watch Guille Abascal’s Volos play, find a team in whose dressing room 11 nationalities coexist. Spain, Uruguay, Poland, the Netherlands, Argentina, Portugal … “Being able to communicate with your players is key. That they understand you and you understand them is essential for things to go well,” says Abascal, who manages with Spanish and English. “Another part of the ‘staff’ speaks Greek. With that we get by,” adds a coach who drinks “from two of the most successful schools in Europe in recent years”: “I come from where I come, and I can’t avoid it. I have the possession and understanding of the game of my time in Barcelona and the caste and courage of the Seville school“. Abascal, who admires Marcelo Bielsa and Juanma Lillo, has been working abroad for more than four years, but he does not believe that this has led him to disappear from the national radar.” It is true that we tend wrongly to value abroad more, But nowadays, with the amount of technologies that there are, anyone can follow us from the other side of the world. “” If I do a good job, the opportunity to return home will arise, “says the revelation coach of the Greek Super League. The Spanish Nagelsmann is called Guillermo Abascal.