Juan Mata: "After the death of my mother, I have spent the worst year of my life"

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It is Sunday in that quiet corner called Bowdon, a half hour drive from Old Trafford, where

(Burgos, 1988) lives, who is immersed in reading a copy of

.

"At home I have more books than I have read and I should focus on trying to finish the ones I have, but I always pick and buy more," he acknowledges in conversation with EL MUNDO.

Through Bowdon, next to the Altrincham train station,

,

or

.

But Juan is still there.

Eight years of his life dedicated to Manchester United have turned him into a respected devil who, however, yearns, towards the age of 34, for those minutes on the pitch of the past.

After losing his mother in 2021, he admits to having lived through the worst year of his life.

A sadness that mocks words.

Despite everything, he continues to sigh for his great passion: "I still feel like I have football left."

It seems that his football trail has been lost a bit in recent years. Perhaps in this last year because I have not played as much as I would like.

I renewed for another year with the illusion of continuing to play, to continue contributing to the team through my football, but unfortunately I have not been able to participate as much as I would have liked.

It also has to do a bit with the situation the club is going through.

These years have not been and are not being the best time in its history, with changes in coaches, styles of play... That not only affects me, but all the players. He has been at Manchester United for eight years and 277 matches.

Did he imagine becoming little less than an icon of the club? He always had the illusion, especially the day I signed, of enjoying this historic club.

For me it is a privilege to be here and represent this club, where a lot of great players have played.

Also, playing every two weeks in a stadium like Old Trafford and, also, enjoying every day what it means to be a player of this club, or to be a 'red devil', as United players are called.

As a child, my dream was to be a professional footballer and debut in the First Division in Spain, so everything that has happened after that, which was 19 years old, has been a bonus.

It is true that, luckily, I have been able to live fantastic moments in my career, also here at United, and I continue to have the illusion, the desire and the passion to continue living fantastic moments here.

Now comes the Champions League, with a tough duel against Atlético, which is always dangerous.

Just imagining winning it in these colors gives me goosebumps. He landed at United months after Sir Alex Ferguson left.

In almost a decade, the team has not won a Premier again.

Is it so traumatic to part with a coach of such magnitude? It is proving that it is.

Obviously, each club is different and the circumstances of each coach are different.

But at a club like United, where Sir Alex Ferguson was a figure who brought leadership and energy to the whole entity, on and off the pitch, if he's not there anymore, it affects.

The club is trying to fight again for the Premier and others, betting on different coaches.

Although we have won four titles (Europa League, FA Cup, League Cup and English Super Cup), it is true that what this club deserves is to fight to win the Champions League,

the Premier and the best tournaments there are.

By history, staff and capacity.

It is important for any team to form a solid enough structure so that, regardless of whether a coach continues or not, the club can continue to maintain the same level.

Create circumstances that allow the club to continue being what it was and not depend solely on one person. Do you see any similarity in the role that Simeone has at Atlético and the one that Ferguson had? I don't know if it's similar, I don't think it's good compare.

What is a reality is that, since Cholo arrived, Atlético's competitive level has skyrocketed.

The jump has been considerable and not only within the field.

The club has grown in parallel off the pitch.

Atlético has been doing a fantastic job in recent years, attracting top level players,

with the new sports city project, obviously with the Wanda, which is an incredible stadium.

What he has done phenomenally is growing inside, with players, being very competitive with Simeone, and outside, as a club, as a brand. On Saturday, Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick at the age of 37, despite experiencing one of his worst starts to the year and have received some criticism.

Is he as fierce as they make him out to be? [Laughs] I only knew him from playing against him, but I know him much better since he came here.

In personal treatment, outside the field, he is a very close and open person, despite what he may seem.

I have a good relationship with him, we talk a lot and we get along very well.

Then as a professional, the fame he has is for a reason.

A professional to the millimeter in nutrition, in recovery, in rest, in preparation...

He knows what it means to be at the level he has been for so many years.

A person cannot reach those numbers without that ambition, without that discipline and without that desire to always show what he can do that he has.

For example, his hat-trick against Tottenham on Saturday.

One of the things I admire most about him, or about players like him, is being in the elite for so long and continuing every day, whether they play better or worse, showing that they want to continue being there. Do you see yourself playing at 37 years old? Well, why not?

I love to play soccer.

I enjoy when I am in the field or training.

If my physique allows me, mentally I really want to.

In the end, being a soccer player is such a beautiful profession when you love this sport that you want to practice it as long as you can.

I still feel like I have left. By circumstance, Ryan Giggs,

who was his partner, ended up being his coach for a few games in his first season.

He must have been strange. It was a temporary thing after Moyes left.

Ryan took him for four games and in the last one, at Old Trafford, while he was still a player, he put himself on [laughs].

He was already 40 years old, he warmed up and took it out himself, something unprecedented in football.

But with Ryan well, the truth.

I always remember a message that came to my mobile when I signed for United that said: "Welcome to the club, Juan. Unfortunately, I am now the second best left-footer in the team. Ryan Giggs."

He was lying, obviously, because he was the first, but I really liked him.

at Old Trafford, still a player and he put himself [laughs].

He was already 40 years old, he warmed up and took it out himself, something unprecedented in football.

But with Ryan well, the truth.

I always remember a message that came to my mobile when I signed for United that said: "Welcome to the club, Juan. Unfortunately, I am now the second best left-footer in the team. Ryan Giggs."

He was lying, obviously, because he was the first, but I really liked him.

at Old Trafford, still a player and he put himself [laughs].

He was already 40 years old, he warmed up and took it out himself, something unprecedented in football.

But with Ryan well, the truth.

I always remember a message that came to my mobile when I signed for United that said: "Welcome to the club, Juan. Unfortunately, I am now the second best left-footer in the team. Ryan Giggs."

He was lying, obviously, because he was the first, but I really liked him.

Juan Mata, during United's last game.Rui VieiraAP

In a few days (March 29) it will be a year since the death of his mother, someone very important in his life.

Is it difficult to talk about it or does it help you? Last season was the most difficult of my life, due to all the circumstances that my family and I lived with my mother.

Many trips to Spain, many very difficult moments... This was one of the reasons why I wanted to stay here for another year, to be able to live a full season, without empty stands.

But it has been a drastic change in my life, something horrible, and it has undoubtedly been the worst year of my life and the most difficult season of my career. She was very aware of her football career. Imagine a mother who loves madly her two children, pending both my sister Paula and me.

It has been a tremendous loss.

I would not know how to define sadness or what words to use to describe what we experienced last year. Her maternal grandfather was also very important in her life.

He was not a footballer, but he liked to score goals.

What advice do you think he would give you right now?He would tell me to enjoy football until he can.

He always told me that watching me play football gave him life and that has stayed with me and is worth it to continue playing.

Above all, at times when you don't have as many minutes.

You feel frustrated and it is normal.

During this season I have had many moments of frustration for not being able to participate.

I always energize myself, thinking about how happy it has made my family to see me play and how happy it still makes them.

That also gives me strength to get up the next day wanting to enjoy again,

and try to focus on what I can control.

Not in the rest.

My attitude is the way I train and take care of myself, which is what I can control.

Doing that every day and to the maximum comforts you. His father [Juan Manuel Mata] was also a footballer.

Have you seen any video of his father as a player? He was very good, very good (he played in the Second Division with Burgos, Oviedo or Orihuela).

Before, football had more ends with his natural leg.

My father was a left-footed winger, with speed, a great one-on-one, a very good center and a great foot for free kicks.

He made 10 or 12 direct fouls.

My friends always joke that he was better than me, but he had worse luck.

We have videos at home of when he played.

I remember going with my sister to my father's training sessions and starting to play there.

Does having a soccer father add pressure or help? In my case it helped a lot.

I never felt that my parents put more pressure on me.

Quite the contrary.

I will always be grateful to them for letting me be myself in all the important decisions.

At crucial moments in my career.

I always felt free to be able to honestly express my opinion to them and be myself.

Unfortunately, I did see cases of colleagues, in the Oviedo youth academy, in the Real Madrid youth academy, whose parents, instead of helping, hindered.

And it doesn't make much sense that a father or a mother, when they want the best for their child, prevent him from developing.

Without my family, my friends and the people around me I would not have become what I am. Is height a virtue or a disadvantage in football? I'm not short, but it's true that I'm not a basketball power forward either [ laughs].

Soccer is one of the sports where height is not so decisive.

We talk about Maradona, Messi or in Spain about Cazorla, Iniesta, Xavi or myself.

Football consists of many more things than height.

It is true that there are coaches who value physical presence more and others decision-making and technical quality.

Depending on who touches you, you will have more or less weight in your team.

In the World Cup (2010) or the European Championship (2012), most of us were not physically privileged, but we did not get injured and, above all, we made the best decisions and did what the game asked for, which for me is fundamental. Do you think of the gesture of kneeling on the grass, as a symbol of protest against racism? I am in favor of everything that means showing a sign of respect for any person.

To show respect for people who are going through difficult times, as is the case with those affected by the conflict in Ukraine or by racism, which is a scourge of society.

It is about continuing to maintain the public image that racism must be eradicated and should not be present in this century.

There are quite a few things to improve.

It is simply showing respect to people who have suffered for whatever reason. Is the Spanish team already part of your past? My hope is still intact.

Now I'm not here and it's difficult and unlikely.

But the case of Santi Cazorla comes to mind.

When he returned to Villarreal he started playing and Luis Enrique had no problem calling him.

The other day I read some statements by Piqué where he talked about age in football.

We are seeing it with Cristiano and with many others.

Age in life, and also football,

it's just a number.

What you have to look at is performance, perseverance, attitude, it doesn't matter if you're 18 or 34 years old.

It is true that we live in a society that constantly seeks novelty and that, when you have been playing for a long time, people want another new face and another name.

When we were young, it was very difficult to reach the First Division and debut with the national teams.

It was very difficult to take that step so young.

Now youth has that plus that veterans used to have.

it was very difficult to reach the First Division and debut with the national teams.

It was very difficult to take that step so young.

Now youth has that plus that veterans used to have.

it was very difficult to reach the First Division and debut with the national teams.

It was very difficult to take that step so young.

Now youth has that plus that veterans used to have.

I had a difficult time with Mourinho, but it also made me a stronger player and person.

Year 2022 and the world in suspense for a war.

It sounds like fiction. Unfortunately, it is not a fictional film, but a reality.

I see with sadness that in the year we are in, with all the advances that human beings have made throughout history, on many levels, we have not yet managed to resolve conflicts in another way.

You have to do it with dialogue, with the word and try to bring positions closer together.

I hope it ends as soon as possible. Are you one of those who thinks about this matter a lot? I am interested in what is happening with concern.

To see as much as possible what each one can help.

But, more than anything, I inform myself with the hope that this situation that is frustrating and saddening a good part of the planet will end soon. In 2017, it launched the solidarity project 'Common Goal'

to respond to situations like the one currently being experienced in Ukraine. Through the 'Common Goal', an emergency fund was created to help people who were seriously affected, in this case in Ukraine, and to do so through Ukrainian organizations with which the movement had been working on in recent years.

What this movement is about is maximizing the ability of football to improve society a little and make it a little fairer.

We also created an emergency fund for Covid.

We try to be where help is most needed. A 1% (the individual contribution to the project) of a footballer can be a life for many people.

Did you expect such acceptance when you launched the idea? When we started talking about this movement, governed by the 1% rule, I did have the hope and conviction that it was something that was going to attract people.

The world of football needed a movement that brings football as a professional sport closer to the other football, that of development, as a way of life.

We saw this way of doing it.

We can all say that with 99% of what we have, we would live the same.

A single 1% does not mean much, but many 1% can help. It seems impossible to separate sport/football from politics. It has reached a point in society where football has such an impact and such an ability to reach the people who, voluntarily or not, and in this case, depending on how the clubs are structured, it is difficult to separate them.

It is true that football is a sport and that players are professionals.

With the situation we are experiencing, it is not easy to separate them because politics is one of the pillars of this society and sport, too.

Photo: IMAGOSPORT

As a former Chelsea player, what do you think of what is happening at the club? I have a good relationship with Azpilicueta, its captain, and many acquaintances and friends working at the club, experiencing an uncertain situation.

But you have to put everything in perspective and see that the ones who are really suffering from a complicated situation are the people who are in Ukraine right now.

They are why the world is looking forward to all this. Tell me a little about José Mourinho.

They usually say that you either love him or hate him.

What has been the case of him? We coincide in two stages.

One at Chelsea, in which I ended up leaving because since he arrived in London I did not play.

It was a difficult moment because he had just been player of the season two years in a row, winning the Champions League and Europa League.

I felt very important and when he arrived I began to participate less.

It was a very difficult time because I was at a peak in my career.

However, it also made me a stronger player and person.

In the end I left, I came to United and, after a few years, we met here.

With him here I played all the relevant matches, the finals... I played more.

There were rumors that when I came I was going to leave because I wasn't going to have minutes.

But one of the things that I am most proud of in my career was to stay and show that I could be someone important with the style in which Mourinho's teams play. He managed to bring Mourinho and Guardiola together in the restaurant (Tapeo & Wine ) which opened in Manchester.

That has merit. It has merit, yes, and more so without a referee involved.

It was a Spanish restaurant where a lot of football people went.

Of the two clubs: United and City.

Mourinho went quite a lot because it was close to the hotel where he lived and also Pep, who often went with people from the City staff to watch games and others.

They met several times.

There were also many players.

It was a restaurant that spoke football in Manchester and it was a beautiful time. It must have been a bit frustrating to have to close it down. It all came together a bit.

The pandemic, Brexit, which made it more difficult to bring products from Spain... There were many factors. They say that he does not stop preparing for the future.

Where do you see your future: in an office, in a band or away from football? It depends on the day [laughs].

There are days when I think I would like to be involved in football in some way and I am preparing myself for it.

Since I don't know what I'm going to do, I try to learn as much as I can so that I have opportunities to decide.

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