He Real Valladolid is fully immersed in the fight for survival in the highest category of Spanish football. The blanquivioleta team is one of the teams that occupy the hot zone of the table, although yesterday they took an important step to put land in the middle with the relegation places by beating Espanyol, and in that fight any help is little.
That is why some fans did not understand that their coach, Jose Rojo ‘Pacheta’I would have decided to give permission to javi sanchez, starting center back for the pucelanos and one of the pillars of their defense, to voluntarily be absent from this vital match this weekend against a direct rival. His wife was about to give birth and the coach gave her the freedom to be present at the birth of his son.
Asked in the press room about this issue and the doubts it had generated, Pacheta justified his decision by “humanity”, while placing the importance of the birth of a child far above any football match.
“There is no discussion”
«Javi Sánchez is a matter of humanity. The normal thing is that you have a situation like today once or twice in your life. The boy was hesitant and I told him to go with his wife, because you never know what can happen. AND the emotion of seeing the birth of a child… there is nothing more important in life. There is no discussion. Very important soccer match, another teammate played, we won, he was with his wife. Everyone is happy,” he explained in the press room.
Indeed, everything worked out for the protagonists of this story, because after Pacheta’s courageous decision the clash ended with a 2-1 favorable to Valladolid, who added three vital points to improve their position in the fight to avoid relegation.
It is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that an elite coach puts the needs of a player above those of the group or the team. One of the most remembered on the subject of paternity was carried out by Sarunas Jasikevicius, current Barcelona basketball coach.
During his time on the Zalgiris Kaunas bench, the same thing happened to Pacheta with Augusto Lima, one of his players. And the answer was traced. For the memory and the annals of YouTube, his “scolding” of the journalist who asked the Brazilian for permission was left: “When you are a father, you come and talk to me.”
