“I neither failed nor ever regretted signing for Real Madrid”

Robert Prosinecki (12-1-1969, Schwenningen, Germany) has given AS an interview in which reviews the best and more interesting episodes of his career as a footballer in Spain, where he played six seasons spread between Real Madrid, Oviedo, Barcelona and Seville. Current technician of the Turkish Kayserispor, where he returned seven years later to try to save the team from relegation, tells of his plans as a coach and how he sees the 'new' football derived from the coronavirus pandemic.

He returned to Turkey seven years later as a coach …

Yes, I have been called back from Kayserispor. Eight years ago I came and I managed to help the team to save itself from relegation and we will try, starting on Saturday that the league resumes, to do the same thing in the eight days remaining for the league final. We are bottom, but when I arrived the team was ten points from salvation and now only three.

I understand that the situation is the same, for example, as in Germany or in Spain, stadiums without an audience, strict protocols …

Yes Yes of course. The situation of the pandemic in Turkey is improving, but, come on, we still have an average of 800 infections a day, despite the fact that this country has more than 80 million inhabitants … Kayseri, the city I am in, has a population of just over 1.3 million inhabitants and the case rate is quite low.

In these weeks that you have started training, have there been cases?

In my team, in the Kayserispor, no case has been detected in the tests that have been done, but in the Galatasaray or Ankaraguçu, which are from very large cities, there have been cases.

Let's go with his career as a footballer. His first great letter of introduction was the U-20 World Cup in 1987, which was won by the Yugoslav team, and then his explosion came with the 1991 European Cup, which won the Red Star. What was the secret of that outfit?

That team had been training and perfecting for four years. That Yugoslav league was very strong because we could not go out to play in another country until the age of 25, there were no foreigners and all that helped this generation, surely the best in the former Yugoslavia, to reach so high, not only because we won the Cup of Europe, but because many of those players later triumphed in large teams in Europe.

Have you ever considered the evolution that the Yugoslav team would have had until today if the separation of the territories had not occurred due to the Balkan War?

It is difficult to know, but of course they have left, they leave and they will continue to leave talents from all those nations that emerged from that terrible War. Of course, a Yugoslav team that would have remained in time until now would have fought for the European Cups and World Cups.

After winning the 1991 European Cup with Red Star, Real Madrid announced their move to hype. What really happened to prevent him from succeeding? Do you feel you failed?

I don't feel like it failed; What could I do more? It may be, but it is also true that I had very bad luck with the injuries. When I recovered and returned to take shape, relapsed … Then I went to Oviedo and did a year at a very high level, my performance was also good at Barça and then at Seville …

They say that during his time at the Red Star they infiltrated him many times and that the aftermath he suffered in Madrid. Is this true?

Is not true. I at the Red Star had practically had no injuries.

Did it become a difficult pressure to bear what Madrid paid for you when you were only 21 years old (1 billion pesetas, € 6M), and that you became the best paid of that staff (1.5 billion pesetas for five years)?

Maybe yes, but I had already played for a great club such as the Red Star of those years, with the stadium always full, participating in the European Cup, in a league, the Yugoslav, very powerful … Now, what moves the Madrid is another story. The beginnings were good, but later with the injuries came the pressure for what was said in the press that it was made of glass. That influenced me. Was young. I think that if it happened again it would be different.

At any time did you regret going to Real Madrid?

Never. I can always boast of having played for three great clubs: Estrella Roja, Real Madrid and Barça.

Radomir Antic was important in his career in Spain. They coincided in Madrid, in Oviedo and it could also have been in Atlético de Madrid. Why did you choose Barça?

It is true that we had a great friendship. He helped me a lot at Oviedo, but Johan Cruyff loved me for Barça and at that moment I thought that playing for two of the best clubs in the world was very special, with all due respect for Atlético.

With which coach in Spain did you have a more complicated relationship?

I am not a complicated type and I had no problems with any coach. Obviously, when I was a soccer player and I played I felt happier than when I didn't. Now I live those situations as a coach and I see those who play and those who do not play happy, but in the end the coach is there to make decisions.

And with which president did you get along best?

With Ramón Mendoza, without a doubt. He did everything to get me to play at possibly the best club in the world and he supported me a lot. Also with Eugenio Prieto, the president of Oviedo, I had a great relationship.

What hobby of the clubs in Spain in which you played do you keep a better memory?

Of all, but it is true that Sevilla is very special, and that the year I was down to Second …

If you could go back in time, what would change about your time as a footballer?

I don't know, maybe I would correct some things, but overall I'm happy with my life as a footballer, playing for three great clubs and first for the Yugoslav team and then for the Croatian; with my personal life, with my two daughters and a family that I love; and now with this new stage of coaching that started in 2006.

What else would you have liked to achieve as a footballer?

I think that in the 1998 World Cup, the generation of footballers who agreed in the Croatian national team could have done something great. We were third, which was a great success, but we will always have the thorn that we could have been world champions.

Balkan football has always been an exporter of great talents. How are you now

I think he is in good health again, with Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star in the Champions League. They do not get past the group stage, but they are there, fighting, with a league that is not powerful and with more powerful league clubs that immediately take on the emerging values ​​of the main clubs in Croatia and Serbia, but they always come out talented , forever.

Hey, you have played for Madrid and Barça. Who do you see as the favorite to win the League?

Barça have the advantage of going first and getting two points from Madrid, but I also think they have a better team, but you have to see how they come back after the break due to the coronavirus.

And which is the favorite for the Champions League?

Atlético has done something great by eliminating Liverpool, which was doing great football. It is unknown how PSG will perform, since their league has been canceled. We are going to see how the second round matches of Madrid, Barça and Juventus turn out, because I believe that Bayern have a great advantage against Chelsea… It is still difficult to make predictions.

Will we see Prosinecki training in Spain?

I do not know, now I am happy in Turkey, but of course I would like it, because it is a league and a country that I love and where I left many friends.