Sant Joan DespíHe watches training from a distance accompanied by his coaching staff. He has occupied the main seat on the Barça bench for two years, but he is still unknown to a large part of the fans. Jonatan Giráldez (Vigo, 1991) attends the ARA hours before he returns to occupy the noble place in the side, this time, at Camp Nou, in this Thursday’s match in the Champions League against Bayern (6.45 p.m., DAZN).
It’s been less than two years since you became Barça’s coach. How do you remember those days?
— The previous week I had agreed what I would do the following season. My idea was to leave the women’s first team. I won’t go into detail about what my new role was, but I was still at the club. It was not 100% closed, but I had already spoken to Markel Zubizarreta (general manager of the women’s team) that he did not want to continue. We found a solution, an option to be able to continue working on what I wanted, and after the last match, when everything had already happened, that’s when he called me and offered me directly to be the coach of the team.
How was the call?
— I was at the beach with my partner and friends, when Markel calls me and says: “We need to talk.” And I replied that “well let’s talk, right?” [riu]. Then he tells me that he had to be in person and that he had to go to the Sports City. I was in a bathing suit and flip flops! During the journey there I think of two things: that he would tell me who would be the coach the following season or that he would offer me the opportunity to be me.
And it was the second.
— When he offered it to me, I immediately said yes.
how was it takenstaff the decision? From the outside, it was sudden that the relief was the analyst and not the second coach.
— In the end, both Rafel [Navarro] like me we were both assistant coaches. I was in the stands and Rafel on the bench. We had very similar roles in terms of set piece and coaching tasks and development of the game model. The feeling I had is that, facing thestaff, it was very good news. For the first three or four days, while the procedures were being done inside the club, I kept it secret, but once it was closed, I called all the coaching staff and players one by one to explain the changes.
You took over a team that had just been European champions being your first experience as a head coach. It’s a remarkable change.
— Yes, even though I had been working with this team for two and a half seasons and had a direct involvement in what we did on a day-to-day basis. I knew the players, they knew me. It is true that as a coach it changes in terms of human relations, because I take things with a little more distance, but I am a person who really likes contact, saying things as I feel them, and in this sense i haven’t changed
Now the situation is quite different. The Champions League returns to the Camp Nou. Is it the moment of calmest in the dressing room since the start of the season?
— I won’t lie to you, at the beginning of the pre-season, when you make so many changes and some important players leave, it gets complicated. I have a lot of confidence in the performance that female footballers can give, and I think that right now the line we have is going in the direction we expected. Against Madrid we played one of the best games of the season. Against Bayern we arrive with very positive feelings and all the players feel important. The identity of the team is what it has to be whoever plays: you have to go with the mentality of winning, of pressing up top, of having the ball, of creating chances, of scoring goals, of making the people of the Johan enjoys it, and I think we’re getting it right now.
It has been a turbulent start to the season with problems both in the League and with the Federation.
— It’s true, absolutely true. Everything that happens on a personal level has an impact on what happens next on the field. Especially when it involves a competition, as with the controversy with the referees, the issue with the Federation, the issue of the football fields… There are many things that were not done the way they should have been done and that have a direct impact on the players.
How has the conflict of the selection been experienced in the dressing room?
— It’s a complicated situation for everyone: national team, players… If I tell you the truth, it’s been more than a month without the topic coming up. But it did have an impact because all those things that happen in football, whether football or personal, you have to face them. You need to understand what is happening to try to find a solution.
The union in the dressing room has not been broken by this conflict, then.
– No. Everyone wants to play, that’s a reality and things happen, like anywhere, but things that are normal. The competition we have is very healthy. It is important to have the humility and charisma to understand that football is a team sport and that everyone has to go in the same direction.
That the level of the F-League is low, how does it affect you in terms of competitiveness?
— If you have a sister who is older than you and you play soccer with her, the younger one will always improve more than the older one, because at this level of competitiveness, she needs to give her best version. This is what happens to us in the League. That every match we play with a feeling of great superiority means that we have to find tools to overcome them and that depends on us, not on the competition. So our big sister is the same training, where we provoke scenarios at the same competitive level, because it is where the best compete with the best.
In the end, the nature of each player makes them fill all the gaps left by Alexia”
This month the match load will now be huge: 9 matches in 31 days. How worried are you about injuries?
— I’m worried, if I told you no, I’d be lying. I need to push the players to the limit so they can improve. However, we have to weigh it up and adjust as best we can to the situation and schedule. It is a worrying situation, but we try to do everything possible to readjust it so that there are no injuries, but we know that in football injuries are present and multifactorial and that they will always be there.
And Alexia’s injury? How has it affected the dressing room and the preparation of the season?
— It happened during the vacation period as a team, preparing for the European Championship. Therefore, as a coach and with Markel we were able to organize ourselves two months apart. “We don’t have Alexia, what do we do? How do we reorganize? What profile of player can we sign to try to make the team as competitive as possible?” But, obviously, both in the personal aspect and in the soccer aspect, it is a very big void to lose the current best player in the world. As a coach you have to find tools to try to fill these gaps, changing the roles of other players and with new signings.
There have been several role changes within the dressing room following Alexia’s injury.
— The first thing we did was add another captain and the team decided it would be Irene [Paredes]. Between the captains and the rest of the players, in the personal, emotional and soccer fields, each one took their place. In the end, the nature of each player means that they fill all the gaps left by Alexia, and we have many players who have taken on another role to give their best, human and soccer version, and that can help the team .
This Thursday you return to the Camp Nou. How did you feel being the first women’s coach to lead the team with a full Camp Nou?
— It is something I will never forget in my life, never. No matter how my coaching career goes, those are things that you have there and that I try to give from time to time the importance, the value, the privilege that I felt being on the grass. It was an indescribable feeling. First by the reaction of the public buying tickets and filling the stadium, with the reception, which was a unique feeling, and then the atmosphere we had throughout the game, apart from the positive dynamic of goals, chances, the crowd, the lights… I remember that afterwards, when the game was over, people stayed in their seats because they had had a good time and that’s something that should be highlighted, because when we played the next match against Wolfsburg exactly the same thing happened. This is no longer about forcing a situation, but the fans believed in it, the team believed in it and what was created from that fusion was a unique result in feelings. And I’m not talking about football, I’m talking about feelings as a person.
Now back to the temple and against a team like Bayern.
— We need everyone to come and give us that support that we had during the season, because it’s not that it helps the team anymore, it’s that they’ll have a good time. We need that team feeling to be transferred to the stands, and to give each game the importance it deserves because we are playing against Bayern: who beat us in the pre-season, because historically there is a complicated relationship with very contested games. Because we have to win, we have to win by playing good football, and that implies that we need their support so that things can go well.
