Interview with Marcelino: "I have believed in God since I was a child; I am only afraid of death"

• EDUARDO J. CASTELAO

  @EJCASTELAO

  Villaviciosa (Asturias)

Updated Sunday,July 10,2022-03:04

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tears come to his eyes twice during the interview.

The first, when he remembers the traffic accident (a wild boar crossed him on a highway) that could have had a much worse ending for him, his wife and his mother in the run-up to Christmas Eve 2017. The second, when remembers the death of his father (2014).

In both cases, he quickly represses them, sighs heavily and continues.

He is sitting on the bench where it all started 25 years ago.

It is the field of Les Caleyes, home of Lealtad de Villaviciosa, 27 kilometers from Gijón.

A field of natural grass, of those of daisies next to the wall, of those of the mound in the area to drain the water, of those of mud under the feet of the goalkeeper and goals with some rust.

On a cloudy Asturian summer morning, Marcelino, 56, was sitting in his crib.

one of the best coaches of the moment, he responds to everything, also to his fame, in a certain controversial way.

The conversation lasts almost an hour.

Loyalty, promotion.

Sporting B, nothing.

Sporting, almost.

Recreate, rise.

Racing, UEFA.

Saragossa, promotion.

2nd stage in Salvation Racing.

Seville, not finished.

Villarreal from 2nd to Champions, Valencia Cup and 2 Champions and now Athletic.

Is Sevilla a thorn? No.

The thorn that I have stuck is the non-promotion with Sporting [2003-2004 season].

That is the real thorn as a coach.

In Sevilla we were wrong on both sides.

Especially me, for accepting something that I wasn't convinced about, which was the making of the squad and the profiles of the players that made it up.

Sevilla was going through a stage of post-title and thanks to the players who had achieved it.

A couple of years later, he signed 14 players to completely change that squad, and that's where it started to take off again.

He is now with the children's campus.

What do you think of the training of children in football?

Sometimes it all seems a bit disproportionate.

12-year-old children who have an agent, the bestial demands on these creatures... For many years now, it turns out that children have an agent from a very young age.

That is something that is there.

What used to be known as the Brunete Tournament, that junior tournament, it is very possible that everyone will have a representative.

It is the best?

I don't know, but it's the reality we live.

From a very young age, there is an excess of demands, and there is a belief that any child who stands out at the age of 12 is going to be a footballer.

And no.

On the contrary.

It is a very small percentage that achieves it, because talent must be joined with a series of qualities that are not abundant in today's society. But,

Don't you think that these children are put under too much pressure? I have the advantage that I was a soccer boy and a student.

And with my son I applied that experience.

My son played soccer very well when he was little, but I always put the focus on his priority, and the priority at that age is studying.

And then play a sport.

Will that sport take you to be a professional?

Well, we don't know.

We parents have to try to help our children to study, because that is their future.

And then at 18-19 years old, make decisions.

But until that age... Do you play football?

Good.

You are good?

Good.

Do you have fun?

Good.

do you enjoy

Great, but at the same time you study.

Studying, and passing and getting good grades, generates obligations.

And obligations are positive habits.

My son started to study and play, but since he followed me everywhere, that hurt him,

because it did not have a normal evolution in a quarry.

At the age of 18, he chose to study and has a double degree in Physical Activity and Sports Sciences and in Physiotherapy, which today are enough for him to be on our coaching staff on his own merits. You are 56 years old.

With the boys of 18, 19 and 20 years, how is the communication with that generation? The boys have changed a lot.

It is very different to train today than to train young guys 20 or 25 years ago.

Society gives you different resources and they accept them that way.

I am quite patient.

I try to give them practical advice that puts them where they really are, I tell them where to direct their attention, I tell them what to pay attention to, what not to pay attention to... That is a job of wear and tear, but I like to do it because I think I can be important in your future.

Everyone wants to be a footballer, and all the information they receive around them confuses them.

I have to give them that information as truthfully as possible.

I can be uncomfortable for them, but I'd rather be uncomfortable than tell the footballer everything he wants to hear and that leads him to error. Because to tell them how tall, how handsome and how smart they are, they already have many people. Of course.

That message is overheard.

But that message is not reality.

Words are determined by deeds, and deeds are what put you in your place

but I prefer to be uncomfortable than to tell the soccer player everything he wants to hear and that leads him to error. Because to tell them how tall, how handsome and how smart they are, they already have many people. Of course.

That message is overheard.

But that message is not reality.

Words are determined by deeds, and deeds are what put you in your place

but I prefer to be uncomfortable than to tell the soccer player everything he wants to hear and that leads him to error. Because to tell them how tall, how handsome and how smart they are, they already have many people. Of course.

That message is overheard.

But that message is not reality.

Words are determined by deeds, and deeds are what put you in your place

There is a belief that any child who stands out at the age of 12 is going to be a footballer.

And no.

On the contrary.

It is a very small percentage that gets it

How would you define yourself? As a very normal guy, with a series of human values ​​such as sincerity, respect and humility.

I try to move there.

And at a professional level, I move in fairness and try to treat everyone equally. Do you think you like me? To those who know me, yes.

To those who have a daily relationship with me, yes.

We are all evolving, changing.

Now I have a very considerable degree of maturity.

The sum of experiences on a professional and personal level will help you grow if you are analytical and responsible enough to know that mistakes are part of the way you act.

From here on, the people who know me know my values, and a very high percentage like me. But you know that in some sectors you are criticized a lot.

That if he is a crybaby, that if he is protesting all the time,

that if he has fought, verbally, with many people... I think that was years ago, yes, but in the last six or seven years I think not.

Let's see, if we start throwing a newspaper library at a person who works in the public sphere, I don't think there is a single person who cannot be crossed out for something at a specific moment.

But I think I'm a super respectful person.

Maybe years ago I was much more impulsive.

And then sometimes we coaches use phrases that take us to the competitive level.

They all do.

Klopp, Guardiola, Simeone... When you compete at the highest level you want to win, that's a gene we all have, and you take advantage of certain circumstances that you think can take you and your team to the highest competitive level.

They are phrases where surely what you say you do not really mean, but it helps you.

Do you regret anything specific in your career? Man... I regret all the times the referees sent me off.

I regret some decisions I made, but at specific moments I was wrong, when choosing the teams for example.

When I am like now, without training, my next project will surely have a hard time taking it on.

I always act to have a clear conscience, and I do, because all my decisions come from a deep analysis and from the utmost respect. Do you like me? Yes, because I am what I want to be, I never try to pretend what I am not, and that always leads me to act up front.

I am a very normal guy, I don't need shrillness or big situations to be happy.

but at specific moments I was wrong, when choosing the teams for example.

When I am like now, without training, my next project will surely have a hard time taking it on.

I always act to have a clear conscience, and I do, because all my decisions come from a deep analysis and from the utmost respect. Do you like me? Yes, because I am what I want to be, I never try to pretend what I am not, and that always leads me to act upfront.

I am a very normal guy, I don't need shrillness or big situations to be happy.

but at specific moments I was wrong, when choosing the teams for example.

When I am like now, without training, my next project will surely have a hard time taking it on.

I always act to have a clear conscience, and I do, because all my decisions come from a deep analysis and from the utmost respect. Do you like me? Yes, because I am what I want to be, I never try to pretend what I am not, and that always leads me to act up front.

I am a very normal guy, I don't need shrillness or big situations to be happy.

because all my decisions come from a deep analysis and from the utmost respect. Do you like me? Yes, because I am what I want to be, I never try to appear what I am not, and that always leads me to act upfront.

I am a very normal guy, I don't need shrillness or big situations to be happy.

because all my decisions come from a deep analysis and from the utmost respect. Do you like me? Yes, because I am what I want to be, I never try to appear what I am not, and that always leads me to act upfront.

I am a very normal guy, I don't need shrillness or big situations to be happy.

What does Marcelino need to be happy? What I have.

Live well, but without great luxuries.

Be healthy, of course.

Having a united family and... little else.

And have friends that I know I can go to the end of the world with. Do you keep your old friends? Most of my friends now are not from school.

They are the parents of the children who were friends of my son.

I have kept them ever since.

I have three or four groups of friends that I have kept for a long time.

Where I go to work I am increasing that family of friends.

But those here in Asturias are my friends.

Me, when I don't work, this is where I live and where I'm going to live when I leave my profession.

I like Asturias, my land, I like Villaviciosa, I like Careñes, where my parents raised me... I go to a cider house and nobody says anything to me, because everyone has known me for many years.

Football made me a well-known person, but they see that I am the same as I was 25 years ago. What remains of Marcelino who started on this same bench where we are sitting? Well, the values ​​that I was telling you about.

Back then he was much more impulsive, more nervous, he was a catchphrase.

He was awkward to whistle.

I remember that they expelled me more than was desirable.Where do I look for Marcelino tomorrow if he is on vacation?Well, riding a bicycle, or on the beach, or going out with friends in a gang.

I also like the Mediterranean and the Balearic Islands. In professional football, is it possible to make friends? Yes, yes, yes.

The world of coaches is complicated, because we are many for very few benches.

In the end you have more affinity with some than with others, but as in any area of ​​life.

Life taught me that people acquire friendship based on the sum of our values.

If we have different values, we can be known, but maybe not friends. I don't know if it's hard for you to talk about this, but what did the traffic accident teach you? It taught me that life gave me a second chance [here he gets excited and for a few seconds].

And that behind the wheel, you are responsible for your life and that of those who travel with you, in this case my wife and my mother.

But it also taught me that it was fate that put me in an unexpected situation, mind you, that from the median, a wild boar jumped on the car.

It was coming at high speed, a splendid night, we had just stopped for a little dinner... We were coming to Asturias to spend Christmas Eve.

That boar was definitely able to do it. Do you believe in God? Yes. Does that help you? I have believed since I was a child, and it does help me.

I believe a lot in destiny, and God, destiny or the sum of both things wanted everything to stay in a big scare.

Because due to the ostentatiousness of the accident I was very slightly injured, my wife a little more and my mother much more, but look, there she is, 85 years old, in very good health. What is Marcelino afraid of? I'm only afraid of death.

Everything else is part of life.

As the years go by you think 'I have a little less left', and that's the only thing I'm afraid of, yes.

The rest is part of life.

You have moments of happiness, personal and professional, and moments of enormous difficulty, such as my father's death... [she becomes emotional again]. Have you had offers in these weeks? We have had some, but I think we are now in a situation in which we want to see, if it arises,

the possibility of a very exciting project that this coaching staff deserves.

Our trajectory in recent years, with these achievements repeatedly and in different teams, I think we deserve a very good project.

And if it doesn't come... Well, time will tell us if we are very optimistic, unrealistic, or if we have really made merits to achieve this great project, which I think so. The last one is clear.

Is he going to be the next national team manager? I have no idea.

Reality says that we have a very good coach and that he has a valid contract, so he deserves my maximum respect and support.

Once Luis decides not to be, for me, just as I think for the rest of the Spanish coaches, it would be a great illusion and a great pride to occupy that bench.

But I insist

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