Hugo Sánchez: “Cristiano should have stayed at Madrid”

At 62 and after eight years without training, the best Mexican footballer in history has decided to return to the bench. Be attentive to any offer.

Few ex-footballers of the white club have proclaimed their Real Madrid as many times in public as Hugo Sánchez does every time he has the chance. He has not even minded volunteering to work at the Bernabéu. As a coach or as an ambassador. His dream of sitting on his bench one day remains valid, although he knows it will be difficult to fulfill.

What comes to mind every time you see Real Madrid play, on Thursday without going any further against Athletic, and see the urgent need they have for a center forward?

The first thing I think is that it is very difficult to have a '9' that is up to the needs of Real Madrid. Madrid is not worth any '9'. It is under review. Since Cristiano left, Benzema has been trying to fill that role. Before, it was a '9' and a half or a '10' and Cristiano was a '9' disguised as a '7'. The hardest thing to achieve in football historically is a scorer. It is the most expensive. Right now it's not like before. We have a shortage of great scorers who guarantee you a number of goals. Lewandowski, Kane… There aren't many more.

Even without Cristiano, Benzema will never be a “9” really, a Hugo Sánchez.

Can be. It's a fake '9'. He is one of those forwards who like to participate in the game and not have so much responsibility for scoring. It was the case of Benzema with Cristiano, but now he must have that goal responsibility because the other is not there and I think he is assuming it and doing it well. It is true that because of his game he is not demanding, but he is crying out for a striker to replace Cristiano.

Jovic has left, Mariano tells just enough. Isn't it a very big risk to stay with Benzema just for the rest of the season?

If it is. Real Madrid cannot afford not to have an important forward who could play in the event of an injury or something strange happens to Benzema, which of course we do not want. Knowing Real Madrid I am convinced that they are in that search for strikers. There are many games and it is necessary to rotate the players who play continuously. Give them certain breaks either with changes or in certain games.

Who would you sign?

There is the Mbappé thing. He is a player that I like. First because he wants to be at Real Madrid and second because of his qualities. Benzema and Mbappé together can be…. Uffff.

Do you prefer Haaland?

Is different. They are complementary …

You understand goals …

I'd sign both of them. In the 1.4-3-3 that Real Madrid now plays we put Haaland in the middle, as axis and Benzema and Mbappé in the bands indistinctly. You are going to create a number of tremendous occasions. And having the support of the interiors that the team has, the arrival of the sides. For that, you have to invest a lot of money and I'm sure that the “president” Florentino is doing all the planning for the Madrid of the future.

Coaching a team like Real Madrid or Barcelona is different from coaching other teams. It is said that you almost have to be more of a locker room manager, of egos, than an old-fashioned coach.

I do not agree at all. There should always be a tactical order. No matter how great players they are, they have to have a rigor, to know what they have to do on the field. A correction can always be made. It happened to me with my coaches. What you can't do is tell players of that talent how to hit the ball or things like that. But you do have to mark both defensive and offensive details in a slight way. Give it to them and then yes, tell them to have fun and have a good time playing as they can. And I am not forgetting the physical aspect. They have to have a resistance and intensity according to the demands. Both to play and to avoid injury. Wardrobe management, of course, is also important but in its fair measure.

Since you left Real Madrid almost 30 years ago, a good handful of center forwards have passed by, in whom have you seen more of your virtues reflected?

Many have passed, it is true. Each one in his time has had dignified roles and has given his performance. The one I've reflected on the most is Cristiano. He made me think of myself, for his first-rate shots, for his movements, for his obsession with the goal, his voracity … He was like me. If I could fit four instead of three, the better. The same thing happened to me. If he had five chances, he wanted to enter all five. If I failed one, I would get pissed off and tell myself how I could have missed that. That day I stayed to get in more by myself and studied the videos to find out why I had failed her. Cristiano was a devourer, a killer.

What a mistake to let him escape!

I would have liked him to have stayed longer at Real Madrid and with his goals the club would have won more titles

Although now he wants to be a coach again, an old dream of his is to be a Real Madrid ambassador around the world.

Yes, it is something that I have already developed without becoming official. I have represented the club in situations that its president or Butragueño could not move and they asked me to. I would love for it to be official in the not too distant future, of course it does.

Hugo Sánchez about to sign as coach of the Cruz Azul cement workers ”. Damn 2020 said goodbye with the imminent return to the benches of the best Mexican footballer in history. It became the headline news in almost all Mexican newspapers and the opening of Radio and Television news programs with reach to much of the continent due to the media relevance of its protagonist.

Finally he has not signed for Cruz Azul but from his Madrid home he confesses that he is willing to return to training. It doesn't care where. He would go to China, in the most literal sense of the word, but he hopes he doesn't have to go any further. Your preferences. Mexico and Spain or Spain and Mexico. Its two countries. The 'Macho', a nickname he likes, looks into the eyes of his interlocutor while waiting for the first question.

How did you get back on the bench at 62? He was about to sign for Cruz Azul.

Only the signature was missing. The pandemic, locked up at home, made me reflect on life itself. I have realized that I am getting older than I am or what I am. I have strength and enthusiasm and I have decided to encourage myself to lead a team. I am very comfortable at ESPN as an analyst. I like what I do. I work three days a week and the rest I dedicate to the family. But suddenly the flame lit up. I am 62 years old with VAT and 52 without VAT and as my reference as a coach is Luis Aragonés who retired when he was 70 years old, I want to do the same. I have always been guided by his football ideology, his mentality, his character and I want to be like him also in longevity on the bench.

Most of us thought he had retired.

It is true that in the last team that I was, Pachuca, I lost a bit of the illusion to train. I went there with all my hopes. They told me about a two or three year project with a generation of young players. I convinced my wife and my daughters to go there and because we were at one point in the league I had to leave. That dismissal was the trigger for her to leave him.

And in these eight years that have passed, has the flame never been lit like now?

No. He had lost the motivation and the illusion to direct. I've been on ESPN since 2010. I watch matches, I analyze, I speak, I discuss, always with respect, of course. But my energy returned. In my head I only heard, “I'm going to go back to training, I'm going to go back to training” and that's where I am. Looking forward to re-engaging. I have taken out all the books I had from then and with the call from Cruz Azul I had everything ready.

And why hasn't he finished signing?

I have not known exactly why in the end I did not sign. They are in a period similar to that of Barcelona and they told me that they did not have a budget to pay my work team. Everything was ready. All willing to travel and the night before they called me to say that they were not hiring us. I was keen, but I am willing to accept an interesting offer within an order. The family supports me in this new stage. My daughters would stay in Madrid and we will go wherever they call us. Before, I gave priority to the family and stopped training so that they would not have to experience another case like Pachuca. I sacrificed them for football and I did not want to repeat that experience and although there were offers, I stayed with ESPN.

He is one of those who thinks, then, that the benches have no age.

That I know my age does not have to affect my knowledge. I no longer play, now I direct and try to transmit all the knowledge that I have acquired in my time as a player, as a technical director and, now, as an analyst. They are different perspectives that I can contribute in this new stage. The same football is seen in a similar but different way. What I liked the most was playing and I didn't like the bench. Then I liked the bench… as a coach.

The new Hugo trainer will either resemble the Hugo from before or come with renewed booklets.

I will be the same as always with the difference that now I have a huge illusion. Things without motivation, I don't do them. I was champion with Pumas in Mexico. Then with the national team we had good results in the Gold Cup, we reached the final and in the Copa América, which we were third after beating Uruguay. Now at 62, I have a maturity that I didn't have at 50 and I feel capable of making more coherent decisions, without losing my impulsive character and my instinct that has helped me a lot to make decisions. I think that now I will be more sensible, more pragmatic …

As for example so that their teams do not mark men all over the field, as they did with Almería with Chico Flores on Xavi and Ortiz on Iniesta …

Why not? Then, eleven years ago, no coach had dared to make a personal mark on the key players of Barça. The only thing I did was remember that you have to use the weapons that everyone has. When you face Real Madrid or Barcelona, ​​you have to weaken them to strengthen yourself. In today's football you see man-to-man markings. The other day, Real Sociedad with Barcelona pressed in that way and deactivated the opposite. I did it with those two players to leave Messi without his ball suppliers. I did not make him a personal mark because we had the defenders prepared to make him a two against one. We made a short circuit to the Barcelona machinery. It went right. We lost 1-0 by a goal that Pedro's ‘scoundrel’ put us into the squad from outside the area.

If I coached a big team the man markings would have less reason to be, I guess.

It depends. As a coach, you have to do your 'tactical stop' and corresponding strategy according to the weapons you have. If you train a team with more quality and talent, you take the initiative of the game but you always have to try to take advantage of the group, not individually because you are unbalanced. Talent must be brought to fruition by thinking of the collective. You have to worry about your style and playing the way you want. That the rival is attached to you and not you to the rival. He did it with Pumas.

Hugo, football is changing. There is a new trend represented in Liverpool and Bayern, in which the physical, perpendicular game predominates. Less possession. More muscle than tiqui-taca …

There has been a modification. There is more intensity. The physical player is more prepared to resist that physical wear and tear than the teams that can. To those who reach them. There are others who are average in advanced age and cannot do that high pressure football, for example. They do not get gasoline. You have to know what players you have, their age and how you can use them. The five changes are good to maintain the intensity especially in those cases of older players.

Will Hugo 2021 try to adapt his new team to this new wave or will it be more traditional?

I like the mix. I don't like the intensity from the first minute to the last. You have to pause. You can't push up the whole game. You have to change. I neither despise possession nor despise counterattack. I like to mix in the same party. You can start with a high intensity and if you get ahead, go on to have the ball and look for them to wear out.

What is your scale of values ​​as a coach?

Tactical discipline first. Second, physical condition and third, group management, use leadership to convince your players that what you do is going to pay off. The main thing is to establish a style of play. Footballers have to know what to do at all times and in the place where they have to position themselves and their teammates know how they have to help them and what they have to do. You have to have mechanized movements to play with your eyes closed and that everyone knows what they have to do.

Are you so eager to go back to the bench that you will accept the first offer that comes your way or will you propose basic basic conditions, both sporting and economic?

Clear. I am happy where I am and what I do. I will accept the proposal of a team that fills the reborn illusion. Not just anyone. The Cruz Azul thing, for example, he had given me. I'm getting older and it seems like I'm starting to prepare for retirement and I want to do it Luis style. Retire active. I want to give myself that pleasure to return.

And is it worth it at his age and his status to suffer again as one suffers on a bench?

There is psychological wear, I admit it. When you have 25 young players who feel like stars, I treat them like foster children in every way. I also worry about the person. I have always liked to get involved on the human side because later they will give me more in the professional aspect and they can give me one hundred percent.