GironaInsecurity in Venezuela is one of the country’s ills. Practically no one escapes. Girona player Yangel Herrera (1998) grew up in a time when crime rates were the highest in the world. During their childhood, surveys revealed that only 19% of Venezuelans were not afraid to walk the streets at night, and almost a quarter of respondents indicated that either they or someone in their family had been mugged in the past year. In this context, Herrera grew up, who also suffered as a child, and explains to the ARA before the derby against Espanyol this Saturday (9 p.m., Movistar LaLiga) how he did it to move forward in an environment not favorable
Let’s move to La Guaira, your birthplace. What was being done there?
— play baseball [riu]. Like the whole country, wow. It’s the king sport there and the first one my father took me to. It makes perfect sense to us, we’ve been taught it since childhood. Everyone plays games in the street, with friends, neighbors. It is part of our culture. They implant it and then you decide. I got to play it at an academy, but it never really stuck with me.
And when does football start?
— When my parents split up, I moved to Maturín, another city. He used to throw the football there and I spent all day with the ball, going up and down with my cousins. He must have been about nine years old.
Were you a happy child?
– Yeah yeah. I can say yes. I have had all kinds of experiences and especially I have experienced a lot of hardness, but yes. Because I was educated very well at home and without that I wouldn’t be who I am today. In the neighborhoods, the first time a father or mother neglected their child, the child would stray from the path. They didn’t allow me to, and football also gave me the possibility to surround myself with other environments.
And if you deviated, what happened?
– Bad things. There was a lot of crime in La Guaira, where I lived there was a lot of crime. First you don’t understand, because you are not old enough to understand. My parents forbade me depending on what and I would get angry, argue with them. If my friends could do it, why not me? Why couldn’t I go out with them? Why didn’t they let me have a good time? Why couldn’t he step on a party? But what they were doing was the right thing for a child, and so much so that it was.
That was the routine, watching all the time, because when you left the house no one stayed calm. You never knew what would happen. They killed a cousin of mine and I saw how they took him away”
They cared about you, of course.
— It was a constant, you had to be aware of everything 24 hours a day. That was the routine, watching all the time, because when you left the house no one stayed calm. You never knew what would happen. They killed a cousin of mine and I watched them take him away. When this happens to you, you take everything in a different way. You have to mature by force.
How does a child assimilate this reality?
— I understood that if you were part of that world, you were prone to things happening to you. Everyone was aware that if you had certain habits you could die or end up in prison. It was the real risk. Could it have happened to me? I don’t think so, because I wasn’t part of all that. But I’ve lost a lot of people who grew up with me, friends and colleagues who are no longer here today. I feel that for my age I have experienced too many things, but maybe that is why I have now learned to enjoy the small pleasures and live life to the fullest.
Was the ball a shelter?
— Not entirely, because at first the relationship with her was very informal. I played because I had fun. I really like football. I did whatever it took to play it. It’s what made me move, there was no plan B and I didn’t care if I missed anything, the first one was football. And I wasn’t interested in studies, only football.
Let’s jump forward in time. At 19, you sign for the City Group and they send you to New York.
— The Venezuelan national team was a showcase that allowed me to show myself on an international scale. And when I join the City the movie changes, the jump has nothing to do with it. First they dropped me off in New York, but the final idea was to land in Europe. That served so that the impact was not so gigantic and I was getting the idea of what was to come.
Another change, one more.
— I went there alone, like when I left home to bet definitively on football at the age of 13 or 14. Culturally, I’ve seen a lot of different things. By force you lose the fear, if you have it. Because you have to freak out, no one will do it for you. And feel good: if I’m comfortable at home, I’m better in the field. I have seen this when I have created my own family. And I know what I want for my daughter, to instill in her the values that my parents instilled in me.
Let’s talk about the derby. Last year you played for Espanyol.
— I have a thorn stuck in it, because with the injuries I couldn’t give what I know I can give. It is noticeable that it is a historical club. It may not be in its prime, but when you’re inside you feel it’s a great institution.
Are you doing well in Girona?
— I was positively surprised, the truth. I am very happy with it and in the dressing room we are very united, we are young and noble people, without malice between us. And when you work in a good environment, it transfers to the lawn. We have a group with the level to save the category, but we cannot deviate from the good work we are doing.
If you score will you celebrate?
– Of couse. Goals should always be celebrated.
