José Pozo: “I went to Qatar to clear my mind”

Last January, Jose Angel Pozo (Fuengirola, 1996) extended his contract with Rayo Vallecano until 2024 and left on loan to Al Ahli in Qatar, where he is performing at an exceptional level. The midfielder from Fuengirola with a past in the lower categories of Real Madrid and Manchester City has five goals and one assist in the eight games he has played with his new club. “I was not having minutes at Rayo and I asked to leave to regain my confidence and feel important again. The president spoke with Iraola, he gave the go-ahead and we began to look at options,” Pozo discovers in AS.

“I decided to come to Qatar and the reality is that I am very happy,” he adds from Doha, where he has discovered a championship, the Qatar Stars League, with “high level”. “Obviously it can’t be compared to LaLiga, but the competitive level is high. It’s not a championship you can come to for a walk. It’s a professional league where they take everything very seriously. The country is going to host the next World Cup and they want to have a powerful tournament”, adds José Ángel Pozo, who competes with other former LaLiga players such as Javi Martínez (Qatar SC), James Rodríguez (Al Rayyan), Toby Alderweireld (Al Duhail) or Santi Cazorla (Al Sadd): “There are many top players level”.

At the end of the last course, José Ángel Pozo decided to go through the operating room to solve some discomfort in the pubis. “I forced myself to be able to train at the same pace as my teammates and be available to the coach. I was in a lot of pain, but it was worth it because we got promoted to First Division with Rayo. It was a very nice thing,” recalls Pozo, who was weighed down by the operation and this campaign he only added 233 minutes until he left on loan to Qatar: “The injury is forgotten, but I have had a regular time in the last two years and this experience is helping me to clean my mind. The coach (Nebojsa Jovović) called me before coming and I already knew that I was going to play everything and be important. After two operations, it’s what I needed most.”

José Ángel Pozo enjoys his adventure in Doha – “here the desert meets the sea. It’s something strange, but super beautiful. Life is calm and the weather is very good” -, where he has gotten into an intractable Al Sadd who champion of the Qatar Stars League was proclaimed four days in advance. “They are a step above the rest. They have all the Qataris who go with the national team and, in addition, top-level foreigners like Cazorla, who is very good“. It will be precisely Al Sadd, a team led by the also Spanish Call Funnyhis rival in the quarterfinals of the Emir Cup: “We have it complicated, but we will try to get to the semifinals”.

Pozo does not lose sight of Rayo Vallecano: “I have a WhatsApp group with some colleagues and I am in daily contact with them. I also speak with the president from time to time.” The man from Fuengirola, who will continue in Qatar until next July, wants to succeed wearing the strip: “I trust myself a lot. It’s true that injuries have slowed me down a bit, but I have the level to play for Rayo”. He went through the Real Madrid quarry and then signed for the Manchester Citywith whose first team he made his debut with Manuel Pilgrims. Pozo considers himself “a person open to all kinds of adventures”, but he wants to make a career in LaLiga: “Where I want to play and where I want to live is Spain. That is clear to me”.