“I had to leave my family to play football”

“Yes there is”, he answers when we ask ourselves if there is a more important person in his Reservoir native. “My mom,” he adds, not forgetting the day when, at the age of 11, she had to hold back his tears until she started the taxi that was going to take him to Buenos Aires700 kilometers, so that the separation of Lelia It wouldn’t be even more traumatic. There was no other way to pursue his dream of being a footballer, which at that time was on the horizon of a Barcelona who now intends to challenge his leadership. However, the call that would change his life would be that of Simeonethe most convinced that it will mark an era in the band of Atlético. The beginnings were not easy, but with his world champion crown included, no one doubts that Nahuel Molina walk the right path.

His soccer story, like that of so many children, begins in the streets of Embalse. How many times during his childhood did he score the goal that he would get in the last World Cup?

I led a quiet life, Embalse is a small town where we all know each other and I remember playing for hours and hours dreaming of those moments that luckily I was able to fulfill.

Was it possible for his first goal with Argentina to come after an assist from Messi in that dream of becoming a world champion?

No, that dream is no longer imagined by anyone. The pass that he made was incredible and that it was him, who for us Argentines is our idol, was something very nice.

He is only 25 years old, but his career is dizzying: he became a professional in a great club like Boca, he triumphed in Calcio in two years in Udinese, he won a Copa América and a World Cup…

Yes, the truth is that things happened to me very quickly and one does not assimilate what one has been experiencing. I think that with the passage of time I will realize everything that is happening to me. Now I haven’t done it because we already have to think about the next game and think about the goal I have at the club.

I don’t have Barça DNA, but there I learned to organize myself on the pitch

Nahuel Molina

Before he had a past in one of the Barça schools in Argentina. I don’t know if it can be said that he has the DNA of him…

No, that’s already too much. Although I was in an academy there in Buenos Aires, it was only two years and after that I did all the juniors in Boca.

How did they discover you in the Ftiz Simón of your town?

They were the scouts that the Academy had, they were touring Argentina and they saw me playing in Córdoba. They offered me to try it on, to see if I liked it. So I went to live in Buenos Aires alone. Well, I had his support, but I did have to leave my family to play football for more than…

Was it like entering La Masía?

Yes. It had a bit of the methodology, so to speak, of Barcelona, ​​but we were totally distant, it’s not that it was Barcelona itself. The truth is that it was a nice experience for me, more than anything for my learning in soccer. I learned a lot of things at an age when what you do is just play and play. I started to understand the game a little more.

At the age of 12, he even traveled to Barcelona. What did he take away from that experience?

I spent a few days training there before returning to Argentina. More than anything, ordering myself on the field, as a boy one plays and runs after the ball and goes everywhere. Organizing myself, knowing how to play as a team, knowing that other colleagues who have their duties are there…

That El Cholo asks you… There was no greater motivation to choose Atlético

Nahuel Molina

Didn’t you have the thorn that if you had taken the opportunity you could have ended up becoming a Barcelona footballer?

Yes, yes, it may be, it may be so. Things turned out differently, but it can be. At that moment I put all my desire, it’s not that I didn’t want to.

Now more than one pulls their hair out there for having let him escape.

No I dont think so. Barcelona has a generation of boys that is surely very good. My path just went the other way.

What did Atlético have to end up choosing him despite having better financial offers?

Because it is a very big club and it has a great coach, who was also a bit the one who wanted me to come to the club. There was no greater motivation than the fact that a coach as great as Cholo, who has been in football for so many years, noticed and had that illusion in me. He gave me a lot of joy, that’s why I also wanted to come to the club.

With time I will assimilate what I have lived, today we have to think about the next game

Nahuel Molina

Does being a request from Cholo bring peace of mind to come or does it mean responsibility and added pressure for not failing him?

No, then it depends on me, on what I work for and what I do on the pitch. But that a coach asks you and notices you is something nice. Also the possibility of reaching Atlético de Madrid was something very important for me and for my career. It was very cute.

Did the world come crashing down on him when he missed the rival goal in his debut at the Metropolitano and ended up being sent off?

Yes, the desire for the first game and everything fell apart a bit with that. But with my desire to keep working and keep fighting, I was able to change that situation.

If there is a League? We are going to fight all the points that lie ahead

Nahuel Molina

What did El Cholo say to you at that moment?

Nothing, they are football things, which can happen to anyone. Unfortunately it happened to me in my first game here, but it can also happen to you at any other time. An expulsion is football, it is a sport so it can happen calmly.

It came to be used as a thrown weapon against El Cholo in those beginnings, but it has managed to silence mouths and now no one doubts Nahuel.

Nothing has changed. People have their opinion and always will. I look at myself, I do my self-criticism on what I have to improve, on what I have to continue working on and then it depends on me and what the team wants to be.

And what do you want to be? With the moment you are living, don’t you feel angry not having started the season like this?

We are in a nice moment and enjoying it. But also the start of the season was not as we wanted, we did not get the results we wanted and it hurt us a lot to be left out of the Champions League and several games that we lost in LaLiga that distanced us a bit. But nothing, we have to continue with the mentality we have now, keep improving and keep leaving the team as high as possible.

And now what is Atlético’s ceiling? The runner-up? Are they going to the Camp Nou to see if there is a League?

We have many points ahead of us and we are going to fight for all the points we can.