Hernán Santana: “I’m inside a hotel and I only go out to train”

Hernán Santana is living a unique experience in India, where cricket is king and soccer makes its way. Central and midfielder hierarchy and admirer of Quique Setién, is subject to the bubble system due to the pandemic of COVID that this country does not exceed. Footballers only leave the hotel to train and play.

How did going to India come about?

A long story to tell. I was looking for a way out of Sporting because things did not go as expected and through a coach I had in Las Palmas, Sergio Lobera, the opportunity arose. He had signed for the City Group, which bought a team in India, in Bombay (called Mumbai City). I didn’t think about it. It was to change everything because it meant leaving Europe. Last season we were champions of everything. I wanted to continue but there were changes and in the end I decided to sign for North East United, a team from the city of Guwahati in Goa.

How is the competition?

The bubble format is repeated. We are all teams in the same city. Each team is in a hotel playing the league in three different stadiums. In four months of dispatch this. The league started on November 19 and will end in February.

The pity is that this experience coincides with the pandemic.

It’s a shame because in the end when you can talk to people who have been here for years they tell you that they are cool. In India there are almost 1,400 million inhabitants and there is a very good atmosphere in the matches. All of that is being lost. It is a country that has not managed to recover. The objective of the bubble system is to avoid crowds, airports … avoid contagions.

How can you live in a hotel without going out?

It’s complicated. It was a pretty tough season personally because I came alone. This year my wife is with me. It’s just training and racing. You can imagine! The hotel is fine and closed to us. But it is eating and sleeping there and from time to time they open the pool. And a little more. Life is pretty monotonous. To study English classes. It is long especially the days off.

Is India a soccer country?

India is one hundred percent cricket. He is 50 times above football. Soccer is making its way and has a following. There are fields where you can meet 90,000 people. The idea they have is that it takes importance.

And footballers …

There are many foreign players. And coaches. But they bet on the Indian player. There can only be six foreigners per squad and four alignable.

It was forged in Las Palmas.

I was lucky enough to get a promotion to the First Division and to give away a football that a lot of people liked with Quique Setién. I had a change and I went to Sporting. It didn’t go quite right.

Are you in contact with Setién?

I have a very good relationship with him and Eder Sarabia, people who did very well in Las Palmas. When I signed with Sporting, Quique sent me a message congratulating me and telling me that I was going to a good place. I know that now he is dedicated to his things. Eder is in Andorra trying to play good football. I wish good people the best. I hope that one day Quique returns to professional football because he does many things well.

Too bad things didn’t work out for him at Barcelona.

It has been seen over time that Barcelona is a rather complicated team to train and manage. With many problems that are not from football itself, which does not come from a way of playing. It goes a little further. A bad management of a club where it is reflected is in every weekend in the team. To win titles you need a good job behind it.

There are many outstanding coaches and players in the Indian league.

Going into the City Group in Mumbai there was a lot of contact. At key moments when we played the semifinals to win the championship, we always had some supportive message from Guardiola, from Agüero… these are details that make a difference for the better in terms of good management. That works for the better.

Is it difficult to adapt to the Indian culture?

It is another world. Other customs. I have not immersed myself in the country because I am inside a hotel and I only go out to train and the little I can get to know is with my own colleagues and the people of the hotel. They are religious, respectful to each other and to outsiders.

Don’t even think about ordering a beef steak …

Noooo! This is impossible. Here you have to come with a gastric protector, that’s for sure. And before eating anything, you have to take a look because everything has spices, spicy … it’s amazing. This year we have the option of placing orders outside the hotel. There is an application here in India that is like Glovo in Spain. Here, with a margarita pizza that we order from time to time, we must be careful because they add spices. Inedible! For anything. They prepare a pasta dish for you and you see the black pepper balls like the one that adds a little oregano or salt. It’s totally different.

The president and owner of the team is a fashionable actor, John Abraham.

He is a super famous actor in India. He has a part of the club together with another owner. He is a Bollywood actor (an alias used for the film industry in this country).

Are there any interesting players?

There is a central who signed in Croatia. It’s called Chindam. He is one of the few players who has been able to leave India. There is another, with millions of followers on the networks, tried at Celtic in Glasgow. His name is Sunil Chetri. To give you an idea, he is a Cristiano Ronaldo style player so to speak. In India it is the benchmark with the selection by the hierarchy

How do the connections go there?

An odyssey! The power goes out every two by three when there is a storm or rain. Here right from the start you are watching anything or in the middle of a game with the Play and the power goes out, it comes back, it goes back in five minutes and so on. With the Internet, the same.

How much do you have left on your contract?

I signed for two seasons with the option of an optional third party. A medium-long contract that guarantees you a bit of stability, but without closing the doors to other options. Return to Spain? That is always there, but it is complicated. You know that when you come to Asia. I am 31 years old and I still consider myself young.

What position is he playing in?

Last year I played central, but all my life I have been a midfielder. A ‘box to box’. In India it is very important to play with two foreigners. By that rule of three, as there can only be four foreigners on the field, sometimes he played as a center-back and other times as a midfielder.

Do you follow the Spanish League?

I see a Real Madrid left over, He has found a good balance. The rest is very even. And in Second I see Almería going like a plane to Ponferradina giving the surprise and pending of Las Palmas and Tenerife, the two Canarian teams.

As a Canary, you will be concerned about the situation on La Palma.

I was born on La Palma. I have friends there and I have done summer camps there. It is a situation that is a tragedy. I talk to people there and they are living a real nightmare. 70 days have passed and there are people in a state of shock, sleeping in caravans, in friends’ houses, they are an uncertain future because the aid does not arrive. There is talk of the volcano but without the media attention that there was at the beginning because it is no longer news. Complicated moments are coming. The worst will come when the volcano stops nagging and the uncertainty of families who have lost everything. They are going to be complicated years for the people of La Palma.

Will we see an Indian team playing a friendly in Spain?

Indian teams are looking to do preseason in Europe. Why not? If I convince the owner to see if we can stay in Spain.