“Peralada was the best place to make the jump to amateur football”

After joining the champagne club last season as a second and tasting the Tercera RFEF for the first time, Alex Marsal regains the role of main technician in what will be his debut in the category. The coach has the endorsement of the five seasons in which he directed the youth A of Girona in the Division of Honor.

He left the youth A de Divisió d’Honor del Girona to be the second coach of Peralada and has now become the first coach of the champagne club. A year later, are you happy with the decision?

He wanted to be a head coach again at one point or another. I didn’t know if it would be this year or next, but one day I wanted to be again. I left base football to make the jump to amateur football because I wanted new experiences.

What did you think of amateur football?

I liked the change. I found a spectacular wardrobe. The players make everything much easier for you than you possibly would in another amateur football team. The type of footballer Peralada has is healthy, with a combination of experience and incredible youth. That’s why it went the way it did this season (the team qualified for the promotion play-off).

Has starting as a sophomore helped you a bit of adaptation and/or preparation?

He had never tasted amateur football. It is totally different from what he was used to until then, as he was training young dwarfs of a different profile. Here are established footballers, who have been playing amateur football for many years or who have even been in the elite and are now in a category worthy of them. There are also others that are completely different that rise from youth and live in another type of market. The Third RFEF is the mud. Many of us are used to living grassroots football in a semi-professional or professional way, as in Girona, and now we have found another type of football.

Did he miss being first though? So many years of being in Girona…

A little. I had never been an assistant coach before and it was a very beneficial experience. I am very grateful to Miquel Àngel (Muñoz) because I learned a lot being his assistant.

How did the opportunity to coach Peralada arise?

Peralada signed me last year to be a second-year player, at first I told them I didn’t see myself there, but in the end I thought about it and accepted because I wanted to try amateur football. This season, the circumstance has arisen that they have decided to make a change of course. I’m really looking forward to getting started.

What will Alex Marsal’s Peralada be like?

The game idea will not vary much. The footballers rule the style and it is the philosophy that exists in Peralada also because of the type of field we have. We will be a team that wants to have the ball with a good attitude towards football. From there, we will grow the team. We have to try to make the best squad possible to try to make the best football possible.

Will there be many changes to the squad?

There will be changes, but it will not be a revolution. The thickness of the template will remain at 70% and will be quite similar. Last year I already expressed to Peralada how I felt the team should be or how I could be comfortable there. Some important footballers leave like Joan Tomàs, who initially retires and joins the coaching staff. We lose him in the squad, but he will add from the bench because he is a player with a lot of experience. It can help us all, me and the players.

Is Alan Baró still on the rope for a while?

Alan, yes! Also Romero, Micaló… They are players who are part of the shield. Apart from the experience they have, they are very good people. They have experienced a thousand and one in football – I, for example, have not – and in various situations they are always ready to lend a hand. If I had to make the jump to amateur football somewhere, the best was Peralada. I’m clear. Because of the environment, the management and the profile of footballers in the squad.

You firmly believe in the bet for young people.

Logically, there must be experience in the team because we are in Tercera RFEF, but there must also be youth with a hunger to make Peralada grow even if it is just for them. We will look for a profile of a player who wants to go up and we can give him the tools to finish in a higher category.

How will the losses of Sergi Solans (transfer ends) and Marc Nierga be covered? They were the team’s top scorers.

We will be looking for a player profile of this style: fast and young. We are planning to make a couple of signings, which we hope to be able to announce soon. We have to be patient.

Last year he said in an interview with Diari deGirona that “the players don’t just come to train and leave, they come to grow the club”. do you keep it

It’s the goal. We have to be selfish on both sides. We have to try to make the player grow and the player try to make the club grow. If both things happen, it’s a good sign, both for Peralada and for the player. This year we have the case of two footballers making the jump: Solans is returning to Girona and Jordi Palacios has signed for Terrassa, who intend to move up to Primera RFEF.

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Iñaki Codinach will be his assistant again. Is there a bit of Girona philosophy in this Peralada?

This is what we will try to recover. We want to be a team that is hungry. We talked about it with Iñaki, we both have the same feeling as when we started with Girona’s Division of Honor youth six years ago. For us it was like touching the sky and we have the same feeling. Lately, he was a little disconnected from football, but he has the illusion again. The type of footballer here makes you have it and so does the board. Peralada is a home club, humble and hardworking. It’s about to grow. The youth and cadet have been promoted to Preferent… It is an important reference in the Alt Empordà.

2023-06-22 04:30:35
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