Carlos Soler, footballer thanks to Nintendo

• Soler's feat.'Hat trick 'from a penalty in a match, like Di Stefano and Peternac

What need did he have to fight for the ball if he had one to play alone?

That is the reflection that five-year-old

made himself

every time his grandfather Rafael insisted that he join a team and stop spending the afternoons kicking his grandmother in the Plaza de Benicalap, the neighborhood north of Valencia in the one who lived.

The only way to convince him was blackmail: Carlos agreed to train with his brother in the dirt fields of Bonrepós in exchange for the

Game Boy

he wanted so much.

Nor could he dream that that child would go down in history as the footballer who scored three penalty goals against Real Madrid at Mestalla, the first of the 21st century to do so and rubbing shoulders with

and

.

The figure of Carlos Soler has grown in the midst of the umpteenth Valencia crisis.

At 23 years old, he leads the dressing room together with Gayà, with whom he shares captaincy, Valencian DNA and precocity.

They are two veterans in twenty-something bodies.

For the midfielder, this is his fourth season.

He made his debut in Anoeta in December 2016 at the hands of

, but it was Voro, in another critical cycle, who settled him in the first team.

That campaign ended with 23 games as a starter and three goals: Villarreal, Alavés and a plastic Vaseline against Celta, which he still chooses as his best goal.

That debut did not free him from selectivity that summer.

He allowed himself only one whim: his Dalmatian Pongo.

However, the dream was about to be cut short a year earlier.

, then sports director, delayed his renewal because he did not see him as a first team player.

showed more eye

, who wanted to take him to Castilla as a replacement for

.

Valencia's reaction came on time, the player stayed and Madrid signed

.

It was hard not to foresee that it would come.

Even

saw him and at the age of 13 he sent him his first boots along with a congratulatory letter for his "sporting and academic merits."

Talent, nerve and goal showed from a very young age.

In his second year as a youngest, in the previous moments of a match against Villarreal, he told the coach, Xavi Tamarit, that he was going to hit him directly on target at the kickoff.

When the referee whistled, he did so and scored.

In 2009 he was chosen as the best player of the Alevín Internacional de Fútbol 7 Tournament in Arona.

He was the youngest child of those who participated and dazzled with three goals, two free-kicks, in the final against Barça (4-3).

The legend of '

' was born, the affectionate nickname of his friends because his permanent smile tears his eyes.

Among them have always been Pedro Chirivella, Nantes player and former Liverpool player, and

, with whom he has grown up in the quarry and who in August 2017 served him a goal against Real Madrid at the Bernabéu, the first of the five who has marked the white club in 10 games.

Admirer of Villa, heir to Baraja

Soler has been delaying his position as he advanced.

As a forward who admired

and scored 100 goals, in the center of the field pushed by Rubén Baraja, who trained him in the youth team and anointed him as his substitute, even encouraging him to take number 8 when he settled in First.

The 10th, the one who had always excelled in the lower categories, had an owner, like penalties, like the team's baton.

With Parejo in the eleven, Marcelino exiled him to the right wing, where he fitted in perfectly.

He also got used to the iron discipline of Asturian food.

Welcome oat milk and goodbye to desserts.

Without coimplaining.

The award, his first title, the Copa del Rey in the Centennial year.

Couldn't ask for more.

With Parejo's departure, Gracia made a space for him where he most likes and made him the thrower from 11 meters, for which he perfects himself with videos and emulates the pause of Mendieta and his friend Oyarzabal.

With the Basque he trained the pitches in the concentrations with the sub-21.

The ritual keeps him in Paterna.

That gave him confidence to put himself four times in front of

and a week after beating

in the 100th minute to save a point.

The responsibility did not overcome him, nor did the Covid, which he has overcome twice, in March and in August, delaying his incorporation to the team.

The only mole is not being able to put the 10 on the back.

Despite being vacant, the club sent the message that it was reserving it for a player with commercial potential.

That's for Meriton

.

Soler preferred not to argue.

With a contract until 2023 (and a 150 million clause), European champion and fixed in the Under-21, Soler is transformed in the field.

Outside is a boy who, despite having his own flat, lives with his parents, studies Physical Activity and Sports Sciences (he started Journalism but was not convinced) and responds with goals to the 'piques' with friends who have him signed at the Biwenger.

This week: 17 points.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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