Javi Serrano, an athletic heart that looks at himself in Gabi’s mirror

“We want eleven Javi Serrano on the field”. It was the message that spread like wildfire on social networks after Atlético’s elimination from the Copa del Rey at the hands of Real Sociedad. The youth squad had gone out to eat the grass in the 12 minutes he had at the Reale Arena and despite the fact that he could not avoid defeat, he left a good example of several of his qualities from the pivot: intensity, claw, character, ball output, strength, energy…

Some days after, Serrano came on in the 95th minute of the duel against Valencia to close out the win after a spectacular comeback and he enjoyed his first moments in the League and in the Wanda Metropolitano, which applauded furiously before one of his own. Born in 2003, the midfielder had made his debut with the first team in another position that is not forgotten, an entire Anfield where he was once again a focus of physical deployment in the 15 minutes he played when Atlético suffered after a long time with one less player.

And it is that the blood of Javi Serrano can be said to run red and white. Paternal inheritance, which from the first day pulled him towards the athletic feeling. After starting playing futsal in Tielmes when he was only 5 years old, competing with children older than him from day one, His arrival at the club of his loves did not take long to become effective. In 2010, only seven years old, Serrano He took part in some tests at the Atleti school in Cotorruelo, caught the attention of the coaches and since then he has spent practically his entire life linked to the club. And if he was looking for a model and a pattern of play in the first team, he was soon dazzled.

Serrano saw how, as he evolved in the Atleti quarry, Gabi had returned to the club to take charge of a team that grew enormously with the arrival of Simeone on the bench in December 2011. This was already expressed as a visible face of the athletic quarry in 2015, indicating to José Ramón de la Morena that he always looked at the great captain of the first team for his way of representing Atlético and his way of leading the group. A Gabi already ran for little Javi Serrano, captaining the mattress teams in the lower categories almost since he arrived at the quarry thanks to his character and innate heart.

A talent that has not gone unnoticed outside of Atlético either. Serrano has been burning stages from the Madrid national teams to the lower categories of Spain, becoming a fixture since the Sub-16 and also carrying the captaincy. Currently a regular in the U-19, Serrano is one of the great promises of the Atlético youth academy and a player who has been gaining more and more prominence with Simeone based on work, without neglecting or losing focus on Atleti B and the Youth League, the same case as Carlos Martín.

Cholo valued the evolution of Javi Serrano in the run-up to the match against Valencia. “Is on the way, if he continues with this humility and this gift of work that he has, of getting closer to being stable with us. It will depend on your desire to learn and improve. He has some situations with which we feel identified and the team needs. You have to take it little by little, not rush it, but it has something that is needed: energy. The trust of the coach and the club in Javi Serrano is total and reciprocal on the part of the player, who only thinks of succeeding as a rojiblanco and responded to the interest of teams like PSG renewing his contract until 2025 and last summer extending it until 2026, before a preseason where he was the second youth squad most used by Cholo after Giuliano. An athletic heart that continues to grow game by game and that already excites the mattress fans.