The veteran pivot of Villarta de San Juan, a town in Ciudad Real that does not have 3,000 inhabitants, is a classic in LaLiga. He exploded at Villarreal and is very comfortable in Vitoria. A fibula fracture sank him last year, but Pina (32 years old) could end up playing after the extension due to the coronavirus. Now he is excited about the centenary of Alavés.
How about everything in this unusual preseason?
A bit like the previous one after confinement. There it was all much weirder. You can't train or play in the same way, they don't allow you to shower in Ibaia … Small things, but it seemed more like it before: the stoppage, starting over … I was coming out of an injury. Now after passing all that, we see it almost as normal everything.
Many teammates say that football without people is something else.
I agree. The first games are the novelty and the season had to end, you can pass them. Now it is difficult for me to imagine a season without people. It loses a large part of the essence and if in the end it is like that, it would not be understood, football loses its charm.
In Vitoria he has found happiness.
After a difficult season due to the serious injury, although I returned to play, I want to overcome it completely. Being complicated, you continue to have discomfort and I want to overcome them and compete without remembering the injury. And from there, another year in the First Division, in a club where I am comfortable. It is the centenary and gives that extra motivation. I think about it with the desire to enjoy it because the years go by. I have spent many seasons in the First Division and I think of many players who have not been able to enjoy that privilege. I appreciate it. I want to get to my best level.
Within the bad of the coronavirus, it allowed him to finish the League.
Yes, I was able to enjoy those last games. I gave up the season and in the end I was able to add games. On that side, yes I am happy. I speak with people who have had a similar injury like Illaramendi or Borja Lasso, from Tenerife, and they are still out.
By the way, have both you and your relatives dodged the coronavirus?
LaLiga Santander
* Data updated as of September 6, 2020
My family is in Madrid and many people have been infected. Some family member has been able to pass it, but without the certainty that it has happened. When trouble jumped, everyone was confined. But here we have had nothing and I have returned well from vacation.
It is an important piece for Machín, but he will have a lot of competition. Starting with Battaglia, a newcomer.
We are taking the automatisms and what the coach wants, which is very different from what we have been doing until now. In First you have to have competition, it is necessary to improve the level.
What have been the best and most worrying moments in your Vitoria period?
The start of the first season was difficult with so much change of coach. It was difficult to establish a foothold, but Abelardo's stage was very beautiful. I remember very emotional games in Mendi, the team playing fantastic and I feeling very well. The Cup tie against Valencia was beautiful. The second season with Pitu was better, but the comeback when he arrived left an indelible memory. The worst has been this last season. Apart from my injury, which is the worst thing that can happen to you as a footballer. The final environment after confinement, with everything that happened, left us with a terrible taste in our mouths. The dismissal of the coach (Asier Garitano) is a failure for all of us who form a squad. If you ask almost everyone on the team they will tell you the same thing.
Of all the coaches you have had, which is the one that has marked you the most?
Marcelino. He seems to me a spectacular coach, with his things and his nuances but he is a technician who leaves you marked, of the highest level. Pitu has things from Marcelino in terms of understanding the game, but as a learning I have it clear: nobody like him. Now we have a coach with a very different proposal to the ones I have had in my career and it is also very motivating and challenging to learn and see how we can fit in.
He hardly coincided with Cazorla in the Submarine. What did you think of his return?
He has a lot of merit, he is a world-class footballer. That he has suffered such a serious injury and has not played for so long … imagine what someone who likes football so much and plays so well could have thought when he returned. It's a tremendous energy kick. He has given us two incredible years.
Who he was with is with Bruno Soriano … Without words!
I got excited. I have shared many things with him, we have lived great moments together at Villarreal. He is the best player with whom I have shared a dressing room. As a person and captain he is a ten. I was saddened that a player of that level was lost for so long and retired, but football sometimes shows no mercy.
Is Villarreal's Pina the best you've ever seen?
I don `t believe. In Mallorca it was different but I had very good seasons. In Villarreal they asked me for other things, I was at a very good level and in Vitoria I had two good years. I have been changing my style of play. I am left with moments in each of the three sites.
And then there is the adventure in the Brujas … Do you regret it?
I've been spinning it. I was wrong. He came from Villarreal, from playing the semifinals of the Europa League, finishing fourth in LaLiga… The economic proposal was very good. I was 29 years old and it is true that you play the Champions League and fight to be league champion, but there are many differences between that competition and ours, they have nothing to do with it. I felt that I had been wrong, I longed to compete in a first level league, without wanting to detract from the Belgian league. Bruges is a great club, its sports city, stadium and fans are first class, but I am what I thought.
He had hardly had any serious injuries. Do you feel that you have only one step left to reach the level of the National Team?
I've ever thought about it. If I had had the learning of Villarreal at 24, I could have taken that step, but the fact of not having been in a subsidiary with 15 years, that you see them in these kids all your life, took its toll on me. I don't regret it, huh? I was in my town until I was 18 and I went to Madrid to study. Then I dedicated myself to soccer. When I arrived at Villarreal it was difficult for me to pick up some things that I could have had in another way. The last year there I did find myself at a very high level and I was wrong going to Bruges. But I am very proud of each step that I have taken, of each game, I have had a very good career, and what I have left.
Messi stays. Relief!
In order to sell the product internationally, if LaLiga left it would be affected. He is number one and there is no one who comes close to him. That Barça or Madrid weaken affects us all. As a player I was sorry that he left, like when Neymar and Cristiano left. When an important player arrives, I am amazed.
He is a pro manchego and a vermilion ambassador …
When Mallorca came up it was a tremendous joy because we weren't expecting it. Last year we competed with them and each one shoots on their own. I owe you so much and I am very grateful, I wish you the best. It is a First-class club for everything: for city, facilities and history. Although they have gone down, they have done very well in First to be able to go up in 2021 to have a little more stability and keep the project at the top.