What does it mean to be a participant in the best Granada of all time?
It is a pride to have coincided with this team and, above all, with this group of people who are very great professionals. Last year was historic and unrepeatable. We really enjoyed ourselves. This year everything is going to be much more difficult because many teams already know us.
They are overcoming many difficulties. Injuries, coronavirus …
We are a team that makes no excuses. We have been through delicate moments. Best of all, we've stuck together. And that makes us strong. That shell that we have within the team that unites us so much. Nobody is going to give us anything and we must go to the limit to have a year as successful as the last.
Unfortunately, you passed the coronavirus.
It was very hard. I couldn't be with my classmates on a day-to-day basis or with my family at home. I was completely isolated in the basement of my house without having contact. When you see around you that the world continues to do its things and you are held apart, it is hard. It is very difficult mentally to get up well every day, train and take care of yourself. Because we all know that we live on our body. It is essential to be well. I was isolated for 19 days and it never happened. Every time there was a test I was desperate trying to know the result to see if I could get up and lead a normal life. On the bad side, the level of health did not affect me at all.
Are we being responsible?
Within everything we did and do now there are details that escape us all. We have to continue living and it is very difficult to abide by all the rules. Within what we are, we are being very responsible.
Do you notice sequelae after you have recovered?
I lost taste for three days. Once it was over, they checked my lungs, heart, blood tests … and everything was normal.
The Granada of ‘step by step’.
We are a lot of living in the present and remembering the past for what we want and do not want to be and that is our path. Success with work is assured and the club's motto, which is ‘Eternal Struggle’, defines what we are. As long as we do not forget that we will do well.
Anoeta's day against Real Sociedad had to be tough. Playing without training, against medical advice and at your own risk.
It was a very screwed-up moment because, even though I had a lot to win from playing, I knew that I was in no condition, that I didn't know how my body was going to react after being in a room for 19 days. For me it was a bit reckless to have to play that game under those conditions. But the important thing is that the team was not harmed and nothing bad happened to me.
Contract with Granada ends. Do you look strong to continue another year?
What I have clear is that, at my age, to continue playing football I have to continue to feel good. As long as I feel good I want to continue playing. Hopefully we can have a good season and I can stay.
Rockers team. Soldier 35, Jorge Molina 38… and giving the call.
Jorge is an excellent professional. A great example.
Is a reunion with Real Madrid always special?
For anyone. And if you are a canterano, more. It is a game that many people watch. And after many years, continuing to face them is a very good sign. Last year we gave them war but we couldn't win. I hope this year we have that luck.
In a recent interview he commented that in his young stage with Real Madrid he had a scattered life.
I was very young and I got a bit confused about the path between fame and being a professional soccer player. I would have liked to have the awareness that I have now about what I do and the need to put my five senses in football. I would have liked to have lived it with the experience I have now.
Many great players …
The time of the Galactics. And it was amazing to share a dressing room with them. But you value that when time goes by (Los Galacticos was the nickname with which a generation of great footballers that Real Madrid had at the beginning of this century. They were Figo, Ronaldo, Zidane and Beckham).
He made his debut with the National Team, against Latvia, as a Osasuna player.
I spent a year on loan in Osasuna and it was a more than successful decision because I got to know a city and an excellent club of great people where they welcomed me with open arms. We reached the UEFA semi-finals. I scored goals and made my debut with the National Team.
We remember his hat-trik to Venezuela, at La Rosaleda in Malaga, and an important goal to Georgia in a group stage of the European Championship.
The one in Malaga was very nice. I came out at half-time and scored three goals. A dream day for me. I remember Georgia's because, defensively, it was a very strong team. I scored the winning goal.
As a Villarreal player, he has already eliminated Naples, Granada's next rival.
It was a tie where we won 1-0 at La Cerámica and then we suffered a lot there in Naples. They went ahead on the scoreboard and we tied with a great goal from Tomás Pina. We qualify. Hopefully the same result can be repeated.
What a shame about playing behind closed doors!
It's a shame. What we are experiencing as a club we cannot enjoy with our city. It would have been more special to feel that warmth that they gave us. I hope we have them with us soon.
From his time at Tottenham he always remembers Kane.
A player who was a youth squad. He had very good qualities and when they started giving him minutes he always stood out. He was already a scorer. Everything he has achieved is on his own merits and the best thing he has is his winning mentality. He is a born scorer.
Of Fenerbahçe, we better not talk
It was an experience he had to live. And the truth is that I have lived very passionate moments. Things that I have experienced in the countryside, in Turkey I have not experienced elsewhere. And I keep the beautiful memories.
We have a curiosity. Is it from Real Madrid or Valencia?
My family is all from Real Madrid. Since I was little I have always been a Madridista.
The time you remember most fondly?
Without a doubt that of Valencia. I've always told it. I left Valencia as a 13-year-old boy and came back to replace Villa with the '9' from the club in my city. And that for me was the biggest challenge I've had as a player. I have enjoyed it to the fullest. My best time on an individual level where I scored a lot of goals. And there is nothing more beautiful than feeling as loved as I felt in Valencia.
There was Unai Emery.
Unai got the most out of all the players. I got on very well with him. And his way and style of playing benefited me a lot. I really enjoyed the two years that I was with him.
It coincided with Isco. Was he going to figure?
He trained with us from time to time and things would be seen, but I personally did not think it was going to be what it has been afterwards.
Do you see things about Unai Emery in Diego Martínez?
In certain aspects, yes, because they have worked together for a long time (they agreed at Sevilla) and they are, I'm not going to say, sick, but they are meticulous coaches who take great care of details, study the players and their rivals to the maximum. In professionalism the two are the same.
If you were Rentao Yi, would you renew immediately?
Definitely. If anyone is to blame for what this club is experiencing, it is Diego because he gave the club a tremendous turnaround when he arrived and he is the one who guides the way for the rest of us and hopefully he can renew here.
Monterrubio, the general manager, highlighted in an interview he gave in AS that Granada is a family.
One of our weapons is the union that exists, not only in the dressing room. Also in the club. Here we all treat each other the same. With the women in the laundry, with the maintenance guys … there is a special chemistry, they are people who love the club and we have a very professional treatment from them and apart from the staff it is something very nice.
The quarry is giving good results. Aranda, for example, had a great match in the Cup against San Juan de Pamplona.
For a few years they have been doing things very well at the club and in the end, for a club like Granada, the quarry is essential. They are emphasizing and working hard on it. If you get one or two good players from the quarry, the investment is minimal and the profitability that you can get is a lot and it can give the club a lot of sustainability when it comes to numbers, which for an entity like Granada are very important.
What do you think of Luis Suárez?
Very good! It has enormous potential. Last year he was in Second and as the season has progressed he is gaining a lot of confidence. He is seen with great ambition, very competitive. We all learn from him in the strength and energy he has. We are going to make the most of it.
Machís looks like he can roll it at the Bernabéu.
LOL! Hopefully it will be like that. The best thing is that it continues as it is at this very high level. Let it last a long time that the greatest beneficiary will be the team.
Are you going to figure?
I think it is already being, but we have to say it with our small mouth hahaha! Last year he was at a high level and in this one, he is going the same way and I think he knows that his moment is now, that he has spent many years in the Second Division being a great player. And now, apart from a great player in the individual aspect he is being it collectively.
Rui Silva, the wall.
It gives us a lot of security back and a guarantee to have him there under the sticks. He is another player who I hope can continue with us next year. Let's see what happens with his situation, but the desire of those of us who are with him on a day-to-day basis is for him to stay. But we know it will be difficult.
We have seen that he is a very committed person on social networks with his ideas and opinions.
We each have our decisions. We are in a free country and everyone is free to freely express what they think while not disrespecting anyone.
We are going to ask him about Leonesa, the next Cup rival.
It is a team that is going to be very difficult. Last year he eliminated Atlético de Madrid and the best thing is that it has a great stadium, with natural grass. I remember the time when I played in Segunda B with Real Madrid-Castilla. It was a stadium that I always liked to go to. Is very pretty. We know that it will be very difficult to eliminate them.
What would you have liked to have been if you weren't a footballer?
Something dedicated to sports. I don't know if he would have been a physical education teacher.
Does he look like a future coach?
I do not know. Many people tell me, but I see it very far away. I don't see myself because, the more time I spend in the world of football, the more difficult the coach's job seems to me. Now I'm not very open to being. Maybe in the future yes, but now I don't see it.
What do you think of this League so special and even?
It is a very even League. But not only above, also in the lower part and the middle zone. It's going to be very tight. And that gives you the peace of mind that, if you hit a good streak, you can get away from the zone below. Because we know what our main goal is, which is salvation. And hopefully we can get points as soon as possible to get it.
What do you think of this post-Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid?
I think it has reinvented itself well. He has invested a lot of money in very young players who have already passed that period of adaptation and who, despite having a great future, the present is paying off. They are led by a coach who, in a very delicate moment, took the team back and made them champion of the League.
Barcelona and Messi are struggling.
That transition that Real Madrid had in Cristiano's time, now Barça is because they have sold veteran players with names of a high level and have been reinforced with many young players.
How far can this Granada go?
I do not know. We have to add three points every Sunday and get those 42 points as soon as possible, which is not going to be easy. If you tell me right now if I sign salvation with these 42 points, I'll tell you right now. We have the ambition to improve that, but the objective we have, without being confused, has to be permanence.
And Europe, to dream.
As it was last year, a dream to qualify for seventh and what we are experiencing now is very nice, but we know that we have to enjoy it to the fullest. It is an award that we have earned. Enjoying it to the fullest is how the team will get its best performance and we can eliminate Naples.