“Football didn’t leave me, I left him”

“It’s a nod to ‘tiki taka’ because it’s something that represents me, that I’ve lived through and it’s very rhythmic and I said to myself: ‘I’m going to wink:’tikitikitikitaka‘”. He overflows with energy and optimism, although now that he is a singer he looks less like a musician than when he played. Gone are those long braids, but he maintains the smile that ‘bullying’ did not take away from him.

Turn bullying around

“I suffered ‘bullying’ because of my surnames: Colorado Paint. Imagine the laughs Pinto Verde, Pinto Rojo, Pinto and Valdemoro. One said Pinto Wahinto and it bothered me because I didn’t know what he was. And I was left with Pinto Wahinto. But I turned it around and made it my company name. My friends started calling me Wahinto and Wahin in good spirits and in 2000 I created my label, wahin machinations. You have to see the positive in life.

He had his first rap group at age 12, blood brothers, and five years later he tattooed the initials, HDS, on his ankle. At that time he was also beginning to take the first steps towards professional football. “Music and sport have always gone hand in hand. And one always feeds off the other. And although at the beginning the priority was always football, in recent years music has won. Without music I would not have stood the pressure, the moments difficult, for me it has been an engine, gasoline, to be able to get as far as I have in football”.

Superman y Clark Kent

After going through Betis and Celta, he landed at Barça in January 2008. The first big surprise was that his secret identity was revealed. “I was hidden until Pandora’s box was opened in Barcelona. They knew Clark Kent and not Superman. I had worked with a group from Pontevedra that took on a certain name and the press in Galicia already asked me if that Wahin was me. I didn’t I said neither yes nor no, but when I arrived in Barcelona the front page of a newspaper said ‘Wahin Maquinaciones signs for Barça’. And Clark Kent is finished”.

After experiencing the decline of Barça in his first half year at the Camp Nou Rijkaard, enjoyed the other side of the coin in Guardiola’s first year. The chemistry that was generated in the locker room was one of the keys to success. “A positive atmosphere is always important and it’s very difficult to find it. When the games go well, everyone is happy, but the important thing is the balance when they don’t go so well, but not only in football: in everyday life, in the family”.

The sextet soundtrack

He and Alves contributed to the good atmosphere as dressing room DJs. “Dani and I were the most responsible but the beautiful thing in a locker room is sharing. For a little while I, for a little while you. Víctor really liked rock, AC/DC, Xavi was more into Spanish pop… Dani and I We did the compilations.” Coldplay, Killers and Delahoja they did not fail in the great nights of the Pep Team. “Players, like artists, are very superstitious and when something goes well, you don’t have to change it. We always put them on before the game or on the trip, just in case.”

He believes that the return of his former teammates Alves and Xavi He has changed the face of the team. “I am super happy for Dani, if all this has changed I have no doubt that one of the keys to that beautiful energy flow is Dani. I keep in touch with him and the rest of my former teammates but not to talk about football but about how life is going for them : The results go up and down but the important thing is to know how they are on a personal level. I spoke with Xavi after the Clásico, to congratulate him but above all to know that he was fine”.

“Xavi is an infinite encyclopedia”

He has no doubt that the former midfielder will also triumph on the bench. “I loved Xavi as a player and as a coach I am convinced that it will be great. As a player he saw things differently, a football that nobody saw. He lives by and for football and is an infinite encyclopedia of knowledge. He showed it as a player and he’s going to be a great coach.”

He saw the 0-4 but he hardly sits down to watch soccer on TV if his son doesn’t drag him. “I see double now: before nothing and now nothing at all“, he jokes. “I’ve already seen enough from the bench.” The Cadiz goalkeeper has never liked to watch but to play. “Since I was little I loved playing, not seeing it, it bored me. I feel fulfilled because I have arrived where I wanted. Soccer didn’t leave me, I left him. When you leave Barça you have many girlfriends and I decided to dedicate myself 100% to music.”

From the girl to the rope

At the age of 38, he plunged completely into his other life. Which world is more demanding? “Both have in common that they are sacrificed and long-distance paths.” In addition to his career as a singer and producer, he has tried to unite the two worlds with ‘P13FIT’, a training system by jumping rope to the rhythm of music that began to take shape eight years ago, when the creator of the Zumba. “It’s a way of uniting those two worlds, music and sport. I wanted to earn a living with both but I never imagined where I was going to get in both. I never would have imagined making history with Barcelona that my music would reach Hollywood or win a Latin Grammy as one of the engineers on the album by Pastori Girl. I did not imagine how big it was, but my idea was to be the best in what I was passionate about. And above all, enjoy those passions that were the engine of my life, what inspired me and inspire me every morning to work”.