“I am anti VAR; footballers also live from mischief”

Iván Alejo (Valladolid, 02-10-1995, 27 years old) spoke with AS and in this second part of the interview the Cádiz player explains how hard it was for him last summer with that signing that was never closed by from Valladolid. In addition, he says that he is very happy in Cádiz because he has found stability. Alejo once again showed himself against the VAR and reviewed all the good things he has found in his professional career. Finally, he tells how a fan injured his eardrum after a game when he was still a youth squad.

– The summer market with that trip to Valladolid that was cut short at the last minute must have been complicated for you.

– Yes, because I had my bags packed. I do self-criticism and I think I did not handle the times well in the summer. My attitude was not good, I did not do things well and I was ungrateful to the president and the club when they have been the ones who have always been there in bad times and I wanted to leave. When the market closed I had a difficult time. The coach told me that it was going to be difficult for him to play again because it hurts. This is football and I also understand his decision. You have to look at the positive side, which is knowing how to turn the tables and now being an important player.

– He said that I hope he spends many years in Cádiz, but his dream is still in Valladolid, his lifelong team.

– I don’t hide it and I won’t hide it. I showed it this summer not only with words, but with deeds, that my dream is in Valladolid and continues to be. Right now I am focused on Cádiz because I have found both the emotional and sporting stability that a footballer needs to be well and even more so a player like me, who has always been a player with many ups and downs. I don’t want to miss out on the stability I’ve found and my head is in Cádiz for a long time.

– He was even a pick up ball for Valladolid when he was little.

– Yes, I am a faithful follower and since I was little I was a ball boy and I was in the sports city in training so imagine for a person like that what it is like to play in the team of his city, it is the best.

– He likes to vent through social networks.

– I am a person who thinks that as long as there is no disrespect or excessive criticism, the footballer can have that relationship with the street fan. I’m a person who likes to interact, although perhaps I shouldn’t get so worked up on social media or on the pitch, but I’m maturing and doing better little by little. I like to express my ideas on social networks and play games, which never hurts.

– People believe that because you are footballers or public figures you can be crushed on social networks.

– Although people think that we don’t read things, 80 or 90 percent of footballers read what is written to them and our families also read it and there comes a time when you explode. Criticism doesn’t affect me. I read all kinds of comments, I have no problem with being criticized, but we have family who read everything and it hurts them. We are used to receiving constant criticism in this world, but it is part of the business and we have to accept it that way.

– Have you ever considered closing social networks?

– Not at all. I like the march a little bit and that they give me a hard time too because I think that you have to feel a little alive and I have no problem expressing what I feel at all times and telling people what I believe always with due respect and in the best way possible way. Many times in the networks it is very easy from anonymity to insult and disrespect someone, but with the utmost respect I always try to express my ideas, whether they like it more or less.

– He has been shown on more than one occasion against the VAR regardless of whether one day it favors or harms him.

– Yes, I think that this year we are being harmed by the arbitration decisions. They are people, they make mistakes and they have all my admiration because they have a very complicated profession, but I think that VAR came to improve refereeing and I think it has made it worse. Every day there are more doubts and more questions, when is it a hand, when is it not, when does it come in… the other day Vesga was expelled when the one who had to leave was Vivian. These are things I don’t understand. I am anti-VAR whether it benefits me or harms me and I will continue to think about it until the day I retire because I think that footballers also live on mischief and VAR takes a little away from the football of yesteryear.

– Could Cádiz be saved now if they had received a fairer arbitration?

– Yes, I will not deny you. I think that in Mallorca there is a penalty that I do to Brian Oliván that I practically did not touch and that is how Del Cerro Grande recognized it when the game ended, Conan’s penalty that is a bit surreal that they whistle it, Rubén Sobrino’s penalty in Mestalla I think it’s clamorous. These are situations that accumulate and the footballer feels hurt. I am one of those who believes in the honesty of the referees, I don’t think there will be black hands or any kind of boycott against Cádiz, but we are playing a lot for ourselves and the future of many families and, just as we went out to talk afterwards of the match publicly, the referees should come out and explain what they see and feel after each match. I think that in this way we would naturalize the referee more and he would have more respect than he has.

– Speaking of your career, you have played for different professional teams (Alcorcón, Getafe, Eibar and Málaga), where do you have the best memories of?

– I have good memories of all of them. In Alcorcón I debuted in professional football and I have an indelible memory of the people. Eibar was my debut in the First Division. In Getafe I had a top-level coach like Bordalás and he is proving it now. Now in Cádiz I have found my stability and happiness like never before, that I had not been in a team for more than a year and here I am going to do my third and I hope it will not be the last. From each site I have taken something positive. I am a person who likes to be happy and think about positive things. I take something from each place and the mere fact of being in professional football is to be privileged and I try to make the most of it.

– He mentions Bordalás, but he didn’t play much with him.

– Yes, it’s true that I didn’t play much with him, but it was my fault, not his. At that time he was a kid, a brat and he did things that a professional soccer player does not do. He was very immature and he just did what any coach would do, not wear me. But it is true that he always showed me a lot of respect. At the training level, he is the best coach I have ever had because he expresses very well what he wants from the team and that is the proof. With a Valencia that is not at the level of other years, he has managed to get it into the final of the Copa del Rey. He is a coach who gets a lot out of his footballers and that is what the player wants. Bordalás does it with all his players as Sergio is doing it now in Cádiz.

– Is it true that you had an eardrum damaged when you were a youth squad?

– Yes, you know that I’m a bit hot during matches and a fan at the end of the match in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria broke my eardrum and I still remember him every time I go to the beach because I can’t take a full bath because infects me If he is reading the interview I send him a greeting.

– Finally, a message to the fans.

– Thank them for being in the good times and the bad and that they squeeze and fill the stadium every day. And of course Cádiz will be saved. It is no longer to say it, it is that I think so. The team is proving that it can and that despite the calendar it is very much alive and let’s not forget that we are out of relegation and we would have all signed that after the match against Mallorca that practically gave us relegation.