Search with Barça to put the icing on the cake to a record of 31 titles
MADRID, 16 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish striker Carlos Ortiz, currently at FC Barcelona, announced this Tuesday his retirement from futsal at the age of 39, culminating his successful career with “two extraordinary years” at the Blaugrana club and that “they have been a great farewell prize” , according to a record with 31 titles and that can still be expanded by winning another League.
Thus, Ortiz will hang up his boots on June 30 after two decades in the elite. He made his debut in the First Division with UD Las Rozas Boadilla in 2003 and then made the leap to Xota in 2006, ending up signing for Inter in 2008. He wore the Interista shirt for 12 seasons, between 2008 and 2020, and won every possible titles.
In the summer of 2020, he signed for the Parisian ACCS, led by Jesús Velasco, before signing both for Barça in July 2021. Ortiz holds the record for caps with Spain (215) and has won four European Championships (2007, 2010, 2012 and 2016) wearing the national team shirt; In addition, he has been a World Cup finalist twice (2008 and 2012).
“What I admire most about Jesus [Velasco] It’s his talent, his patience, almost never losing his temper. I have seen him lose his form very few times in his entire career and I think that as a player you also take it to your ground”, Ortiz told the official Barça media.
“Even if the game is complicated, there are difficult moments or something is happening, you have to keep your feet on the ground and be calm. And that is very important, beyond, of course, everything he has taught me in terms of tactics and technical, that is a lot”, has added on the matter.
“I want to demand 100% of myself until the last day. Assimilating it is something else. And yes, I have assimilated it. But I don’t stop to think if it is my last visit to such a pavilion or if it is my last confrontation against such a rival. There are times that I think about everything we’ve won, everything we’ve achieved. But, generally, no. The day I retire I’ll have time to look back”, Ortiz stressed.
At the club level, Ortiz’s record includes four Champions League titles, seven national leagues –one of them won in France–, five Spanish Cups, two King’s Cups, seven Spanish Super Cups, one Intercontinental Cup and one Catalonia Cup.
Regarding his culé stage to finish his sports career, Ortiz has been blunt. “For me it has been the perfect icing on the cake in my career. I think I’ve already said it many times. I was about to sign for Barça on several occasions and I always had that little thorn in my head”, he indicated.
“It is true that things went very well for me in Madrid, in the national team, but for me this has been like a farewell prize, two spectacular years. I have met incredible people, in a beautiful city, and I think it is important to say it for remove prejudices that come from outside. Everything I have lived I take it with me “, he said.
Finally, he has not cleared up doubts about his future: “Well, I still don’t have it 100% clear. The good thing is that I have a choice. I think I have done things well in the stage before I stopped playing and now, luckily , I have the possibility of choosing between two or three things that catch my attention, that motivate me, and where I think I can contribute something, which is my main objective from now on”.