San José: “I would love Valverde’s return to Athletic”

Few footballers can boast of adding more than 450 official matches on his legs or being the twentieth lion with the most encounters in the Athletic Club con 397. Numbers that correspond to Michael San Jose (Villava, 32 years old), current pivot of Amorebieta. It has not been a road, much less flat. After arriving at the rojiblanca entity as a youth, in 2007 he signed for Liverpool when he was just 18 years old. He was an Erasmus student for two seasons in England to return in 2009 and chain 11 seasons with the San Mamés team. With a fleeting adventure Birmingham, the player from Navarra returned this past summer to Euskal Herria for the exciting project of the humble club zornotzarra. In an interview granted to Diario AS, Sanjo has reviewed his long career and the promising and uncertain future that awaits him.

Starting at its beginnings. How was the decision to go to England so young? Was it an important moment for your subsequent career?

I think you want to be where you are loved, respected and valued. At that moment I made the decision because that’s how I felt it had to be and over time things haven’t gone badly. It was one more step. The second actually. The first was to come to Athletic from Iruña as a youth and the second was this. Looking back, I think it was a very wise decision and that it gave me a lot of things. If the circumstances were right, I would do it again.

Beyond football, what differences do you see between life in England and here?

It is a similar life. You try to go out and have a group of friends. There the language had to be learned, something we did very quickly. We adapt very well. Life in Liverpool is very pleasant and the climate was very similar to what it was in Bilbao 14 years ago. A lot of rain and quite cloudy. Life is the same until you have children. Then you start thinking about what to do with them. This last stage in England we have been confined for a long time. Many closed spaces and without being able to visit practically anything in Birmingham throughout the year. This experience has been not very pleasant because of that. The club was wonderful, the locker room and the league too, but the lockdown was tough.

How do you rate this return home with Amorebieta?

In a very positive way. Everyone in this dressing room has done a great job and we have fought from the first minute against everything and everyone. We have put illusion, work, sacrifice and intensity in each match. What has to come out will come out. It will end how it has to end, but the idea of ​​returning to a project like this was what I felt I needed and I’m very happy about it.

How is a day off in your life right now?

It is closely linked to what the kids have to do. Ikastola, extracurriculars… Nowadays you are very attached to that. We live in Berango where we have many friends and acquaintances with whom to do any kind of thing. When I go to town (Villava-Atarrabia) I like to do what we have done all our lives. Before we used to play in the square, but since there are no goals anymore, we look for a place to have a party or go play ball, paddle tennis or racquetball. I have always liked sports a lot, and so did my crew.

We recently saw him playing paddle tennis in a solidarity act. Removing football. What other sport do you stick with?

Padel is the most fashionable. The one that more people dare to play and improve more by the mere fact of going to play. But soccer and ball are my sports. It is true that baseball is not a sport that many people play, it is more individual and difficult to improve at these ages. If I have to stay with another, I would say with the ball. Although now it is easier to make a paddle plan.

What is the reason for your usual celebration of making the gesture of glasses?

To the girlfriend. It is a long history of the old San Mamés. We had the invitations of the club in the south high in the corner and I always scored the goals in the north. Many times my girlfriend from afar didn’t know if she was me, Javi Martínez, Iturraspe… and in the end I started to make her gesture so that she would know that she was me and that’s where we continued.

I was talking about the old San Mamés, in the new one the Popular Stand has already been approved. What do you think?

If everyone agrees and goes ahead, it is because it is a great proposal and good news. Obviously I think it’s necessary. Hopefully this will serve to make a few fewer points go away from the many that unfortunately escape every year from San Mamés.

Returning to Amorebieta. How do you assess the confidence that Mujika has given you since his arrival?

I thank him for the trust in taking me out on the field and keeping me going Sunday after Sunday until now and I try to return it to him on the field. Just before I was unable to compete for a while and, after the change, he considered that he had to play. In the end, that’s what we’re here for, to try to help from within or from without.

Looking back. What coach has marked him in his career?

All, each for different things. But I would stay with Ernesto Valverde, without any doubt. I think he is the coach who, in a long time, has given the best performance to all the players and the one who has best managed the dressing room. It was four years with him, a long time to value many things, and I think he is a coach who will be well received by any team and the work will be exceptional.

Now that there is talk of many candidates for the Athletic bench. Which one would you opt for?

We will see what happens because there is one game left. Many things are heard and said. Some in the mouth of candidates who do not know if they are true or false, especially with respect to Marcelino. If I don’t follow him, for having lived it and as a follower, I would love Valverde’s return. I think he is the coach who has given the best performance to all of us and he is the ideal. I don’t know if he will want to or not, if they will be evaluating him, if it will be possible… There are many names. Andoni Iraola’s is on the table too, who sooner or later will be on the San Mamés bench. It is a time of many changes and we do not know how it will end.

As for returns to Athletic, this year he has shared a dressing room with two puppies like Guruzeta and Larrazabal who still have a play-off option. Do you see them ready to return?

I see them more than prepared. If the work is being done in Lezama, the reports on the two of them will be very good. They are well-known players, from home and they do not cost a large investment. I would go with my eyes closed. The Second Division is too small for them. If Athletic don’t decide to exercise the options they have over them, they’ll find another team because they’re obviously having a very good season. They have made a huge leap on and off the field with what I previously agreed with them, in confidence and knowing how to handle good and bad situations. I hope they return to Athletic, because both of them and Peru have a long way to go and a future. Seeing them in San Mamés would be a great joy.

Putting the focus on Guruzeta, he has added 19 of Amorebieta’s 40 points with his goals. How did you see such a big jump from the inside?

I was not going to expose Guru to anyone. We had him in the first team, and the goal he scored in Seville that day in the Cup was not scored by just anyone. You are talking about a player with a lot of skills in front of goal, with both legs, with a header, who moves well and is quick into space. If he hasn’t had time at Athletic it’s because we had a striker named Aritz Aduriz who was the blessed goblet. He played it all, he didn’t get injured and he scored a lot of goals. That is why the others have had to make a living like Guruzeta, who has also had injuries along the way that have prevented him from showing his qualities. Once he has left, and especially this year, the step forward is very big. He knows of the opportunity that he has to be able to return to Athletic because goals are not too many and they are always welcome.

Looking to the future, with the season ending at Amorebieta. What things go through his head? What is up right now?

I do not raise much and I raise everything at the same time. Any scenario you can imagine I can imagine too. I focus on Cartagena. It is clear that the victories of Sporting and Málaga have made it very difficult for us. We no longer depend only on the work we do, even winning can mean losing the category. It is also true that very few people thought that Amorebieta had not been relegated on matchday 41. This team has fought against everything and everyone and is still alive. You have to give it the value it has. We will go to Cartagena to win the game and wait. Hopefully some result will give us life for the last day. The team is doing well and lately, apart from the Almería game, we have had the chance to win many of those we have played. We started waking up a little late and it’s probably not going to hit us. We are going to fight until the end and that is what I have in mind. The time will come to consider more things seriously.

There is talk of his possible entry on some list of an electoral candidacy for Athletic. Is it something that can get into his head?

I certainly do not consider anything other than playing on Saturday. Whatever happens, I have a contract at Amorebieta and I don’t think about everything that isn’t about football. I certainly do not move anything and I only dedicate myself to playing football. Later, what happens will happen, but for now Cartagena.

Big fan of El Conquistador del Fin del Mundo (EITB survival contest). Would you like to enter any edition?

The Conquis is a great contest and I am a big fan. I have said many times that I would like to go. We will see what happens and if the physical allows me. At the moment, this year we are already halfway through the program and let’s see how it ends. It is taking an interesting tone and with very hard duels. Sometimes you see them and it makes you dizzy. Everything will be seen.