“Xavi? Neither fu nor fa; I look at one of the best, Vicente Moreno”

Of that kid who, fed up with stumbling in football, he went to work in a printing press the ability to overcome obstacles remains. Or questions. In the previous of a derby, the first that he will live as a parakeet, does not want to talk about Barça – he made his debut in this match with the Catalans –, says that from the past, perhaps because he did not give much thought to lost opportunities: his time at the Barça, Real Madrid and Perica quarries, to the FIFA sanction that probably prevented him from relieving in conditions to today returned Dani Alves…

But Aleix Vidal is letting go. As it came loose at Espanyol-Real Madrid a month and a half ago. Then he even dialed, in a victory that the Blue and Whites dream of emulating this Saturday at the Camp Nou.

At this point in the film, does one still have the bug against matches like this Barcelona-Espanyol?

Of course. I have met players who are still at Barça and in the end it is special to play against them.

With Barça, he made his debut in this exact match. What does this derby mean now with the other shirt?

It means the same thing that I felt at that moment when I played for Barça. They are special weeks, and now the only thing I have in mind is to do things well to try to get Espanyol to get something positive. Have a good luck.

He scored a goal for Real Madrid with Espanyol. Would you be even more excited to score against Barcelona?

I am not a player who thinks about scoring, it is something that comes alone. What I like is helping the team. Obviously it’s much better if you score goals against rivals from this entity, but I’m not worried. Which one would I like the most? I wish I could explain it on Sunday. They will be very different games because with Madrid we play in front of our fans, and it shows. As much as people say that Barça is going through a crisis, at home they are very forceful and their motivation will be extra.

That added stimulus is called Xavi Hernández. Will it make them more dangerous?

Xavi and the issues of other coach changes neither fu nor fa, I look at Vicente (Moreno), whom I have personally said is one of the best coaches I have ever had, he reads the games very well and I am convinced that that, as the coaching staff has done its job, we will take advantage of the opponent’s weak points. Although it will be a very difficult match, we want our people to be proud.

I see that you don’t want to talk about Barça. Have you had to remove a lot of thorns in your career?

It has not been easy. I have had to work a lot. Everyone who knows me knows what my career has been like. Every day the end is closer, and when I retire I will do it with a clear conscience of having given my best in all the teams where I have been.

In that sense, when was it worse? The six months without playing for Barcelona as a result of the FIFA sanction or his time without opportunities at the Espanyol youth academy?

They were two different moments. At Espanyol I was very young, I went to Damm, there were other managers … And when Barça signed me I was already in the elite, although that sanction in a way hurt me. He had just had a very good season at Sevilla, he had even been international, it was a shame that this moment of form was cut short. But it is useless to talk about the past, I am happy with what has happened to me until today.

Even from his time at Real Madrid? Was your departure due to school reasons?

Yes, yes, it was because of that. I have not been the best student and I was in a very demanding center. We tried to find solutions so that I could continue but it didn’t happen, because I didn’t think it was convenient to move the whole family to continue in Madrid without knowing what would happen. It could have reached the top, yes, or it could have ended in nothing and dragged everyone to a futile effort.

The one who did redirect his life in that school was precisely Raúl de Tomás.

Well, you will have to believe me if I tell you that we have never talked about it, but I’ll ask you tomorrow.

Since it is there, you can also take the opportunity to talk, because you also debuted with the National Team at the time, about how to return from that cloud to the club’s routine. Is it difficult to assimilate?

I believe that what should serve is to motivate you, and knowing Raúl surely that is what happens to him. The teammates may have helped him, but he has gone to the National Team on his own merits. And, being how ambitious he is, it has undoubtedly served him as a shot to continue doing things well as before.

Closing the white stage, does the fact of having been a Madridista as a child think it could have affected your career?

I don’t think it has benefited or harmed me. When I was at home, I watched football on TV with my parents and brothers, who were from Madrid, and that’s why I went with them. But the one I started to live for from football I have always been from the team that feeds me. I owe myself to the team that pays me. It is the most normal and professional.

At the age of 16, however, he went on to work in a printing company and study an electrician cycle. Does that sound to you now as if it were from another life?

I am grateful for everything that has happened to me, but if tomorrow I have to return to the life I had before I was a footballer, my rings would not fall off. Everything I have has been the fruit of my effort, at the age of 21 I got that fortune that all players need and from then on everything was rolled. Even in some moments you miss the life you had before, although the reality is that I do not change it.

Most of their peers, to value what they have, cannot compare those two lives.

Each person has their story, and for having lived that I have no more merit than others.

Your great supporter, Lucas Alcaraz, used to say that you never give up. Is it your main virtue?

In life in general, when things don’t go well for me, I make them go. I try to change the opinion or mentality of someone who does not trust me at the time. And in the end the satisfaction is mine because I turn the situation around and also for that other person whose mouth I have shut up, so to speak, and they have also achieved what they wanted.

Was that doctrine worth to you to reverse your initial doubts when signing for Barcelona in a success, or was it not?

You have to take a train like that, although I had to assess many factors because it was a complicated situation: everything was turning out for me and I knew that I would be six months without playing because of the FIFA sanction. He had to make a sacrifice. I will never know what would have happened if I had stayed at Sevilla, or had been able to play from day one.

Was the shadow of Dani Alves on the right-hand side too long?

It was what he played. Because of the penalty, since I still couldn’t play, other teammates had to adapt to the position and everything turned against me. But it is past water.

Do you think Alves is a good signing for Barcelona today?

Honestly, I neither go nor come. If they have decided to sign him, it will be because they believe he will be able to help them. But it won’t be something that will keep me awake.

Another dribble when asked about Barça …

It is not for Barça, I would say the same about another team. I have to live from day to day, and today I am grateful for everything I have.

Without being Alves’ age, when this summer you were terminated by Sevilla about to turn 32, did you fear it would be your end in the elite?

I rescinded very calm. He was professionally happy with the level he had shown at Sevilla. It was clear to me that it was a difficult situation, like that of my colleagues who are still without a team today, but by mid-summer I knew that Espanyol would try to move the card for me to whoever they could, and I was rejecting all the offers that came to me. Life is about risking. I don’t know where I would be if Espanyol hadn’t come, but I decided to gamble and luckily I was able to sign here. Today I can tell you what a better decision, impossible. I have found a very healthy dressing room, a super professional coaching staff, a club that continues with the same humility and values ​​as always.

Why was it so clear to him that he should wait for Espanyol?

I am so. I thought it was a good time to go back. When I signed for Alavés, it was because in 2017 I had been seriously injured with Barça in Mendizorroza and I felt like I was in debt, that I had to go back there. And with Espanyol the same thing happened. My situation when I was in the lower categories was not the best, so I considered that it was a good moment to turn the situation around. And it is coming out round.

He has turned so much that he has immediately connected with the fans. Is that click due to the pride he has shown, for example, when with 15 stitches at Villamarín he wanted to continue playing?

It is normal for people to have doubts, but not because of my past, but because of my performance. I wanted to be valued from the moment I started playing. And so it is.

Side or extreme. Where do you feel better?

Playing (laughs). The beauty of this profession, which seems very long but lasts so little, is to play. Now I’m playing full-back due to the injuries of Óscar Gil and Miguelón, and there I must be trying to do my best.

After serving in fifteen teams, where does Aleix Vidal feel at home?

My home is all those places. I have the facility to adapt wherever I go, I have been lucky to experience the good part in all the teams, without suffering complicated situations. If it forces me to choose, and although it is very difficult, perhaps Almería would stand out for all that it gave me.

Where does Aleix Vidal see himself once he hangs up his boots?

Until now, whenever they asked me I said that I would like something that had nothing to do with football. But little by little the desire to get into the world of the coach starts to creep in … It won’t be an imminent decision either, I hope it will arrive as late as possible, although of course it is closer each year. What I have clear is that I will not stand idly by. I’m not hyperactive, and I know how to enjoy quiet moments at home, but I never sit still.