The UD Las Palmas coach, Pepe Mel, has told Efe on Tuesday that the Spanish international footballer Pedri gonzalez, summoned for the Tokyo Olympics, continues “breaking down doors“since he was transferred from the island team to FC Barcelona.
The Madrid coach, the main supporter of the Tenerife striker, who made his debut in professional football in his day when he was only 16 years old, believes that Pedri is a “clear example” that talented players “you have to dare to put them“, as he bet with the now holder with Luis Enrique in the Spanish team.
Young people must be dared to wear them, not look at their age but at their courage, their fitness
“You have to see the value, the state of form, and not age, just like if you are 35 or 36 years old. Pedri's case was perhaps a bit beardless, because at the age of 16 he went up to the UD Las Palmas first team, but from my experience as a professional coach, he was a footballer with a clear career“, has explained.
Therefore, Mel is not surprised that Pedri goes “meeting deadlines“and” pulling doors “, because they continue to see in him” what we already sensed when he joined the first team “, and the player has progressed and” matured “after reaching the FC Barcelona and cope with the elite alongside “magnificent footballers.”
The only one pending subject that Mel sees in Pedri is the goal: “It is one of the facets that has to improve, and he knows it, because a footballer who plays in the second row has to help by scoring goals, but everything will come, he is a player who is burning stages,” he says.
The goal is one of the facets that he has to improve and he knows it; but everything will come, he is a player who is burning stages
Your call for the next Olympic Games Tokyo is “one more step” in his meteoric career, although Mel warns that he may pay “a small toll” after such a long and demanding season, with so many top-level competitions.
“We have the experience of when he went to the U-17 World Cup in Brazil, because he came very fatigued and then it cost him. The fact of going to Tokyo could pay with Barça during the preseason, but surely he will go to the Games with all the illusion in the world because he does what he likes, which is to have fun playing football, “he says.
On the other hand, Mel considers “a great joy“That the Catalan goalkeeper has also been called up for the Olympic event Alex Domínguez, from UD Las Palmas, who has also made his debut with the Gran Canaria team in LaLiga SmartBank.
“He has been alternating with us in the ownership – along with the Sevillian Álvaro Valles-, but when Álex has played, he has done well, and he has already been with the U21 team. Hopefully he makes some good Games. His call is a reward for the training work of the club and a great joy for all, “he concludes.