Jorge Valdano has given an extensive interview in The Galerna, in which he has praised the figure of Raúl González Blanco both as a player and now as a coach. What’s more, he trusts him as “one of the best coaches in history.” He also tells an anecdote of how the ‘7’ abronó his Castilla players for facing the public of Navalcarnero. His talk leaves more headlines: the day that Cristiano woke up Benzema, the Tenerife League, his position at Real Madrid …
Raul: “It is the greatest intelligence that I have ever seen on a court. It was a separate spectacle to see Raúl looking for the return of the games, and by that I mean the opponent, the public, the referee … Everything. He did physics The idea of Madrid. I used to tell my people: ‘If there is ever a war, Raúl will go with the Madrid flag.’
The day Valdano discovered Raúl: “I came from Tenerife one day to watch a U19 match. Raúl came in with fifteen minutes to go, and he surprised me a lot. I told Ramón Martínez: ‘And who is that sperm?’ He was 16 years old. He was small and It wouldn’t stop. A friend said they had done it in the hospital with everything that was left over on the day he was born. He didn’t stand out for anything, but his mobility was enormous. I was amused. Some time later, already in Madrid, I was They said if I remembered him. ‘Well, of course,’ I said, ‘a guy like that doesn’t forget.’ ‘Well, he wants to go to Atleti,’ they replied. I was at that time when I wanted to kick Zamorano out. The case is that I met with him and convinced him that nothing to go to Atleti, which was an idea more of his father than his own. He says in his book that my words sounded like music to him. He dismissed the idea of leaving. There is something instinctive. You fall in love with the player, with his desire to always get the ball, and with his courage. He had an almost insolent character from the beginning. “
How was Raúl in the field: “There was a training session in which a veteran kicked him out of all protocol. He got up, asked for it again and faced that same veteran. As if to say: ‘This is the fear I have of you.’ What a personality. the referees in an incredible way. “Mr. referee, it was a penalty, but don’t worry, I’m going to help you.” And on the next play: “How are you, sir? Are you calm?” And that’s how he handled them. to the referees. Never seen before. They never kicked him out. And I insist: superior intelligence. “
Raúl coach: “He does not need to verbalize to transmit. He will be one of the best in the history of football. He transmits with the same demand that he applied to himself. He has something inherent in great coaches. Guardiola, Mourinho, Simeone have it: a unstoppable energy. If he’s here, he won’t let any of us talk. He has the three hundred players in the quarry in his head. Ask him about the one you want from the kids. He’s a marvel. I believe in him a lot as a coach. “
Raúl’s Castilla: “I don’t know if Madrid believes in him as much as I do. But let me tell you something. Raúl is directing Castilla’s youngest squad. He grabs seventeen-year-olds and after six months he returns men to you. He grabs Miguel Gutiérrez And he makes it a man. With Antonio? The same. Marvin? A man. They have become men through an incredible level of demand. Transmitting those values to the boys of today is increasingly difficult, and Raúl Last year they won at Navalcarnero at the last minute, and some Castilla player made an ugly gesture to the public. A Navalcarnero manager told me: ‘I already admired Raúl, but since I heard the anger he hit his players after that, for me he is a god. I told them that, with a bit of bad luck, they themselves could be playing in the Navalcarnero in a few years, and that they had no right to humiliate working people.
The new Bernabéu: “Totally. Florentino has understood very well what this is about, and is trying to give Madrid a great capacity to generate income every day of the year. And those are the weapons from which it will be possible to compete with a club structure like that of Madrid. Here the teacher is Santiago Bernabéu, and even Florentino himself admits that. Bernabéu created a stadium with a capacity for 120,000 spectators when there was no concrete. He did it without official help. First he built the stadium and then brought the heroes. You can’t do it the other way around because you don’t get the accounts. Look at Barça. They hired Griezmannn a hundred and a million, Dembélé percent and a bit, Coutinho a hundred and a bit. Now they have to build a stadium but not he can do it. He doesn’t even have to pay Dembélé. “
Is Raúl ready to take the first team?: “Raúl was born prepared. They put him inside the monster at seventeen and he was not afraid of it. Now that he has made a career in the monster, the less afraid he is going to be.”
Mbappe: “From what we are seeing, Mbappé does not even understand his mother. Literally. It is a situation where many economic, political and purely football interests play, because it can happen that suddenly Mbappé and Messi tune in, and instead of putting thirty goals Mbappé goal fifty, in which case it will be more difficult to get him out of there. Anything can happen with Mbappé. “
His wear in Madrid: “Six months after leaving my managerial position, I ran into a friend who told me: ‘Cabrón, you’ve had a facelift.’ And I replied: ‘No, I left Madrid'”.
How Cristiano changed Benzema’s career: “His change comes from an improvement in his professionalism. This boy has played with Cristiano, the superprofessional par excellence. And Cristiano, who admires him a lot, tells him: ‘Boy, this is not going to get you to Real Madrid’ Karim learned from that advice. Intelligent people change for the better. And Cristiano’s own departure was also important for him, because it forced him to assume that more leading role. “
Valdano’s Tenerife that took the League away from Madrid: “I have a very good anecdote with Mendoza. I started to coach Tenerife ten games before the end of the League. People don’t remember, but before we beat Madrid on the last day we had already beaten Valencia and Barcelona. Barça We won it with six days to go and Mendoza called me to thank me for handing over the title to Real Madrid. At that moment, thanks to our victory, the Madrid that was leading was putting land in between with Barcelona, an advantage. very good. What happened is that, from then on, Barça did not stop winning and Madrid did not stop losing. Mendoza called me in the morning to thank me, and in the afternoon his team was already defeated in Oviedo So those of Cruyff began to cut points until they reached the last game in a position to win if Madrid stumbled against Tenerife. The rest is history. “
Buyo’s mistake against Tenerife: “Don Ramón was very funny. He told it in a very funny way. Buyo wanted to save a corner and in the end it was a goal. Mendoza said ‘the dramatic thing is that it was also a corner, but the referee did not see it'”.
He wanted Cantona in Madrid: “Mendoza told me that it was an unviable signing. It was at that time an emergency economy, although it was curious, because the following year Capello arrived and with him appeared Mijatovic, Suker, Roberto Carlos, Illgner, Panucci, Seedorf … I I don’t know where the money suddenly came from. Even so, we made a virtue of necessity. If Cantona had arrived, the Raúl phenomenon might not have arisen, because I would have been more afraid of making that bet. “