only disputed three derbies, but did not lose any. In addition, one was the ‘Delapeñazo’ and another, the ‘Tamudazo’. Living history of Espanyol, Ángel Martínez went to the Eixample Teatre as a guest of the space ‘Flying Parakeet‘, hosted by Álex Pérez and David Recasens. The Gironan, who he hung up his boots last summer at Sabadell After an ordeal with his knee, he entered the rag with humor, waist and kindness.
“We had a great team, with Tamudo, De la Peña, Riera…“, Angel reeled off, about his experience in that squad in the mid-2000s. “The derbies were very good for usI remember when Rijkaard broke a bench at Montjuïc. Y the Tamudazo, the world will end and it will continue there“, sentence, revealing that Samuel Etoo was unleashed in the locker room tunnel when someone from the staff Perico warned the squad that that draw meant, due to Real Madrid’s victory in Zaragoza, that Barcelona was going to lose LaLiga.
A happiness that he does not hide, and that, two years later, in the 1-2 played by Iván de la Peña, Seydou Keita caused him an injury that prevented him from ever playing again with Espanyol. “I would fall a thousand times in that battle at the Camp Nou, knowing that that changed my career but also put a grain of sand so that we could save ourselves”, he assures. “Valverde for me was like my father. He made me debut”, evokes Ángel, who admits that “it seemed strange to me when he went to Barcelona because I liked the Barça coach“.
But not all were memorable days for the midfielder at Espanyol, who, despite having grown in the academy walked out the back door of the club in the summer of 2009. “It pissed me off. They put me in a room and they tricked me, with a man who has now left Can Barça (without naming him, he refers to the then perico technical secretary, Ramon Planes). They told me that I needed experience, that I would return the following year, but once I left the door was closed and sealed“, narrates.
Regarding the current situation of the team, Ángel explains that “there are doubts, but we are in a privileged situation”, to which he adds: “We must break that phobia that we have when things go well. If we don’t suffer, it seems that something is missing. People have to be included in an ambitious objective, hopefully we are at the top, fighting for Europe. What I ask for is ambition“, culminates.
Ángel Martínez, in ‘Perico Que Vola’.
Flying Parakeet
The former player also defends the task of Francisco Joaquín Pérez Rufete. “It’s fashionable to hit him hard, but he has treated me very well and his situation is complicated like that of any sports director“, says who was his partner on the pitch and that now, at 36 years old and with “a titanium knee”, he divides his time between recovering, preparing as a ‘coach’ and applying. “I would like to be able to do something with Espanyol, with the base and continue to grow”, he wishes aloud.