A legend like Carlos Ortiz He is playing his last seasons as a professional. At 39 years old, the Madrid locker will put an end to his award-winning career at the end of this season. He will do it with the Barça shirt and in his second season with the Barça team, but the club in which he spent the longest and with which he won the most titles was Inter Movistar. He arrived in Alcalá de Henares in 2008 and left Torrejón de Ardoz (they moved in 2015) in 2020 heading to Paris. It seemed that his stage in Spain was over after spending time with other Spanish League clubs such as Xota, with which he made his debut in the National Team. He reached 215 caps and nobody has more in our country.
This same week he announced that he would hang up his boots after finishing this League and, as fate would have it, his first meeting after said news was in Torrejón de Ardoz, against ‘his’ Inter Movistar. Ortiz himself dedicated a few words in his farewell message to the Inter supporters who did not understand his signing for Barça, one of the main rivals, after having captained Movistar for so many years: “I know that many of you did not understand my decisions, but there are times that no matter how much you love someone, it is best to part ways. Be that as it may, I will never forget those twelve years full of conquests”.
And the interista fans responded. Before starting the match that put the finishing touch to the regular phase of the season, and with a result of 5-2, Inter had scheduled a tribute to what was his lighthouse. They handed him a plaque accompanied by an ovation. Six leagues, four Spanish Cups, three Champions Leagues, an Intercontinental Cup, a Copa del Rey… it was a large part of his balance with the blue and green shirt. “We won five Leagues in a row, which were the best five years of my career. I think I would stay with the final in which we won 7-0 against Portuguese Sporting in the Champions League, nobody can forget that,” he said. Jesús Velasco, another award-winning Interista coach who is also now at Barça, participated in the applause for Ortiz in what was and will be his home. The Spartan’s farewell.
“When Barça told me they weren’t going to renew… I didn’t want to start from scratch”
After the match, Carlos Ortiz, acclaimed by numerous fans, spoke with AS in Torrejón. “They were special days. I finally announced that I was stopping playing, although I already knew it for a long time. I had been thinking about it for a while, and when Barça told me they weren’t going to renew… I didn’t feel like starting from scratch, in another club, in another city. I already knew what I was going to do.”, said the man from Madrid. And the future? “I do not know yet”. If Inter Movistar defeats Cartagena in the playoffs and Barça does the same with Valdepeñas, the two teams will meet again, this time in the semifinals: “We were in first position all season and in the end we finished second on our own merits. We have failed in the final matches. The theoretical big teams we already see that they are not always being at the top and the level in Spain is increasing”.