Mandarin Aitana Bonmatí (Sant Pere de Ribes, 1998) has an important game and goes out for more than one night, taking his pillow from home. He accompanied her to Eindhoven, where he proclaimed himself European champion with the FC Barcelona for the second time, and also a new zealand. It is not an amulet but a way of life. He takes care of all the details of his life to be a better footballer. “I have neck pain, I’m on my pillow a lot”, explains a Iberian press in Auckland, home of the semi-final of the World Cup between Spain i sweden. “I can’t be adapting every time I go to a hotel. And, here, we’ve changed more hotels than panties, almost. And the pillow is helping me a lot.”
Are you as demanding of yourself in life as you are in football?
I think so. But hey, football is pretty much my whole life, so I’m always like that.
Were you already at school?
Ugh, yes, yes. And to compare myself and see who had the best grade and such things [riu]. Not when I was older, huh. But he did always want the nine and the ten.
How do you work, beyond training, to be the best?
Being a professional footballer is not just training and that’s it, and you forget about it. It’s being aware of what you do 24 hours a day and that’s how I do it. For a few years now, I have had a team behind me that helps me to be better, beyond what I have at the club and the national team, which, obviously, I have a little bit of everyone.
And what is this team like?
A psychologist, a physio, a physical trainer, a nutritionist… Obviously, my representatives help me a lot. I don’t know if I’ve left out any other important pieces, I’d say no. They are people who have helped me a lot to develop and be who I am today, to grow as I have. I am very satisfied and glad to have them around and to trust them.
When the World Cup started, you threw a team behind you that has been through a lot this year. How do you lead in this context?
I am a player with ambition, I have my character and my personality and I show this on the field. I think we have extraordinary players and each brings what is best for the team. As my demand is maximum with everything, I always try to give my best to help the team.
You see everything that has happened and yet you are in the semi-finals of the World Cup, something that the national team has never achieved before.
I would not like to focus on what happened this year but on the present. We’re having a great tournament, despite the loss to Japan, which I think helped us learn from our mistakes and came at a good time, better sooner than later. I would like to focus on the team we are now, we have reached the semi-finals and nothing, it says a lot about us. Now it’s just time to dream big.
How important has it been to go game by game and not talk about the final like other countries have done?
It’s just that, for me, the fact that you are ambitious and start the World Cup knowing that you can have options to go far does not mean that you have to believe that you will be champion, for me that is a mistake. The team is being built little by little, making its way, gaining confidence according to feelings and results. This is how we did it. We are not a grown team, we all know the potential we have, but we never express that we believe we will win something because it is very difficult.
This World Cup is an example.
Exactly, it has already been seen how great teams have fallen in the group stage or in the round of 16. You have to be careful with what you say. But one thing does not exclude the other, the ambition and the desire to go far were obviously there.
In Sweden, they repeat that the experience they have in major tournaments is a plus point for them, on the other hand, some of you have played in three or four Champions League finals.
Yes, many of us have been in very important meetings with our clubs and I think that it should not be an excuse that we have not been in the semi-finals of a World Cup before. We have endured other moments of great pressure and face or cross, so I am calm in this sense, that many of us have lived similar experiences and have more than overcome them. There are people in our team who are not, but they are having a great World Cup anyway and that says it all.
What does Spain have to beat Sweden?
We have great management of the moments of the match, of the game, how to do damage, how to attack spaces. We are a more complete team, as is being seen in this World Cup. We have more arrivals, more goals. The other day, despite being 2-1 down, we had clear chances in the first half, something I don’t think used to happen before. We have many resources, so do they. I would not like to compare, they are different. But I trust what we have to go to the final.
You face Fridolina Rolfö, colleague and, above all, friend.
We have been talking throughout the World Cup. We gave each other encouragement, luck, congratulations when we won. Now it’s funny to face her, we’ve never done it at national team level. It will be very special, he says, not only because of the great footballer he is but because of the great person he is.
It’s been an amazing year for you. What would it mean to reach the World Cup final?
We had a spectacular season at Barça. Reaching the final with the national team… Winning it would be the icing on the cake, but just reaching the final would be a perfect year.
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2023-08-15 05:49:26
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