Alberto Cifuentes
(Albacete, May 29, 1979) had the opportunity to make his debut in
Primera
20 years ago, when he was playing for
Mallorca
. However, he was left with the desire. He has been in
Second B, in Second
... and on Sunday, with 41 years and 114 days, he has removed the thorn stuck two decades ago and has fulfilled the dream of playing for the first time in the League, against
Huesca
. He is the oldest footballer to make his debut, and he believes that in addition to being fully capable, that nuance gives him an invaluable perspective and experience.
What does it feel like to debut in First at 41?
Not only debuting, but winning, and also leaving a clean sheet.
This is what I have found.
Well, I feel like I've made it, but I can't help but think that this was all a bit late.
But I'll take that, which has been achieved.
Now I am enjoying the feeling, because I have worked a lot. What league match are you looking forward to this season with the most?
To be honest, I'm not a team fanatic.
The one with the most illusion?
This one, my debut in First Division, which has been a dream come true.
Man, I would have liked it to have been at the Carranza and with an audience, I would have enjoyed it more.
Yes, the one that has marked me the most has been this, for being the first in the First Division, for winning it and for doing it well. The promotion season has been atypical due to the pandemic, but even so his role was decisive. 37 games have been played. , and yes, I imagine that I have been somewhat successful.
They are added to the more than 200 games that I have played for Cádiz.
It was nice how we've been in the dressing room, being a very united team before lockdown, when everything has gotten strange, including the League.
It has been a highly anticipated promotion by the club and by the fans, so I am very happy. Debuting in the First Division at his age should bring perspective and experience with respect to players who start at 18, right? that I have not debuted in First for talent, but for work.
At 18 or 20 he looks different.
Now I am living in a time with many concerns.
I'm worried about the improvement, I understand the game better, you play more with your head than with anything else ... And look, I am happy and excited to improve.
Because wanting to do better is independent of age.
I certainly live it from another perspective, of course.
When I made my debut in football, at the age of 18 at Albacete, which was in the Second Division, I didn't see it the same way.
At that age you don't even know how to deal with it. Outside the field, it must also be different personally. Of course it is different.
With my partner, Marta, I have a one-year-old baby, who fulfilled it this Saturday.
And I have two other older children, 15 and 9 years old, who live in Madrid.
He no longer goes out at night and I prefer a thousand times to eat out with friends.
My routine outside of football is to take a nap with my baby and then take him to the park under the house, so that he can vent.
You organize yourself much better.
But this happens to everyone and in all professions, with 23 years in football you will have a wide repertoire of locker room anecdotes.
Count one (laughs).
Yes, there have been many.
Let's see, one that you remember ... One day three years ago, we were already in Second.
In the dressing room, some colleagues got into the habit of pouring alcohol on the floor and covering it with some papers and setting it on fire.
Aitor García lost his hand and at one point boots and some pants came out on fire.
It was about eight seconds and it was already off.
And then we laughed a lot.
It was winter and it was quite cold in the dressing room, there was no way to warm us up. Before arriving at Cádiz, you had to be quite cold playing with Piast Gliwice from Poland in the 2014-2015 season.
I enjoyed it a lot.
I visited a country that I did not know, you live together, you enjoy different experiences ... It is a less structured league than the Spanish one, but they work with very well done marketing, advertising and television broadcasts.
And I'll tell you one thing: when I returned to Spain, I thought about quitting football.
Well, thank goodness he didn't, he was already 35 years old.
And in the end I disembarked in Cádiz, a team that was in Second B. A team with a very loyal fans that makes each game a party. Come on, they had lost hope, and ended up in Cádiz.
Playing in the First Division as in this season was unthinkable, right? Well, you see that far away.
You don't even think about it.
It is true that here in Cádiz I was seeing him closer and closer.
But six years ago, when I arrived, we were in Second B, among the last, and the club was in debt.
In the end you identify with the club and feel part of the project.
I am very proud to have been a participant in its stability and it has been all based on work and effort. Is it possible to be in full sports faculties after forty? At 41 you are in full power, because now the work methodology of an athlete it's different from a few years ago.
Recovery, training, diet, habits ... In fact, it is no longer so unusual to see high-level athletes competing at 37, 38, 40 years of age or older. Forty-year-olds than forty-something, then.
The important thing is the head.
Have a fresh and active head, continuously learn and achieve goals.
The experience and life expectancy have changed.
I feel like this: I am young.
Age, right now, is just a figure.
The important thing is the attitude.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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