Barcelona“It was three months, but it was like a five-year master’s degree,” said the current coach of Espanyol, Diego Martínez, in an interview with Guardian, as was his stay in England which he completed at the end of 2021. A fleeting but very intense stay, shortly after leaving behind three years full of success and wear and tear in Granada. The Galician coach rejected the proposals of different clubs in the League in order to deepen his personal and professional training, a routine that has accompanied him all his life, especially since he hung up his boots at the age of 20 and began to study science. of physical activity and sport at the University of Granada.
Diego Martínez’s “semantic” year, as he defined it in his presentation as a white-and-blue coach, began last summer in his native Galicia. In Vigo, where he had started working as a pilot, he found the time to reduce the list of outstanding books. His library is extensive and varied: there are football coaches such as Rinus Michels, Bill Shankly, Alex Ferguson, Arsène Wenger and Mauricio Pochettino, but also basketball coaches such as Phil Jackson, Mike Krzyzewski and Sergio Scariolo, or American football, such as Vince Lombardi. Emphasize, write down comments and take notes in one of the notebooks that accompany you wherever you go so as not to miss any details that you think may be useful.
Galician, however, not only learns from sport, but has also focused on the talent and ability to manage leading personalities from other fields such as cinema or cooking. Chefs such as Ferran Adrià (El Bulli) and Andoni Luis Aduriz (Mugaritz) are some of the benchmarks of a coach interested in the creative, innovation and rehearsal processes they implement in their kitchens before reaching the final design of a dish. . Martínez tries to capture, from any field, everything that may be applicable to him. “I love learning new things. I try to take everything I can from the people around me, ”he often repeats.
In September, Martinez left for England with his wife and five-year-old daughter. The goal was clear: to study and learn from a country that sets trends when it comes to football. He spent the first months in Saint Albans, a town in north London from where he went to watch several Premier League and Championship matches, but also the ninth division. “We invited him to see what Biggleswade United is like, he took notes, especially on football vocabulary issues, he saw how the clubs and coaches worked, how the game was and how it was lived, and he offered for whatever it was.” , recalls for ARA the Catalan journalist and president of this modest group, Guillem Balagué. “She was very humble. He came with his eyes wide open and eager to learn, as well as with a brutal energy. He has the ability to learn that not all coaches have, and that’s what makes you go further, ”he explains. The Biggleswade offered him the opportunity to follow closely the training sessions and matches in order to know the mentality and way of working of English footballers, but he was also able to teach a masterclass to the club technicians.
Fascinated by the atmosphere of England
“It feeds on all the encounters and experiences it lives. He has a lot of knowledge and knows how to explain it very well, but he doesn’t impose it on himself and he doesn’t think he knows everything “, resumes Balagué, who arranged a meeting with the then Everton coach, Rafa Benítez. “Neither was a professional footballer, they have had to work hard to prove what they know and what they are worth. Martinez hallucinated with details like the software that Benítez has, with notes from the notebooks he used when he was in Real Madrid’s youth team, and concluded that he had to work harder to become like him ”. Martinez later traveled to Manchester, where he got to know first hand the City of Pep Guardiola and Juanma Lillo. “I enjoyed watching them organize their attack and positional play. It’s genuinely different, ”praised the Galician, who was also fascinated by Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool’s” transitions, speed and energy “or Thomas Tuchel’s staging of Chelsea. That experience strengthened his passion for English football, where he dreams of coaching one day: “In the fields of England there is still an atmosphere with a mystique, a charisma and a personality that does not exist anywhere else,” he said. to Guardiola.
Before the end of 2021 he returned to Spain, but did not stand still. In January he traveled to the Marbella Football Center (where Espanyol will be part of the preseason at the end of July), with his technical team, Raúl Espínola (second coach) and Álvaro García (analyst) to analyze some of the European teams that they take advantage of the stops made by their respective leagues in the winter to stay in a more favorable climate. The recipe of Diego Martínez, the football scholar who learns from any field, is clear: to have an open mind and to prepare conscientiously for every opportunity that may come his way. The next is Espanyol.
