The Basketball Journey of Pedro Sánchez: From Player to Politician

One of the great passions of the acting President of the Government, Pedro Sanchezis he baloncesto. Until he focused on politics he had good potential as a player, and even became a soldier in the youth academy. Students, one of the greatest sources of talent in the Spanish basket. In fact, Sánchez was a companion, among others, of Alfonso Reyesone of the best Spanish players of recent decades.

An old rival of his has remembered that time. Is about Lorenzo Sanz Durán, son of the former president of Real Madrid of the same name and also a basketball player. He, unlike Sánchez, did reach the elite of the orange ball both as a player and as sports director of the white club section, and they came to coincide in a tournament for young talents.

In an extensive interview in Jotdown magazine, Sanz recalls that meeting. And he keeps a curious memory of the current socialist leader.

Lorenzo Sanz got a chance in American college basketball. Between 1991 and 1993 he was active in the Lafayette Leopards, but before that he had gone to the American country a couple of summers to play in some tournaments where scouts from the big teams usually have their sights set on capturing talent. In one of them, which was held at Montclair State, Jersey, Sanz and Sánchez coincided.

“I met Pedro Sánchez and his brother David,” Sanz recalls in the interview. «He was in Estudiantes and he was a bit of a jerk. I remember that on the plane we sat next to each other and we spent the whole month together,” she recalls. Their paths diverged radically, but they later coincided again. «I didn’t meet him again until many years later when he saw me in a Carrefour in Majadahonda. He called me from behind: ‘Loren!’ He was still nobody, but at the same time they named him general secretary of the PSOE,” he recalls.

Pedro Sánchez as a basketball player

Pedro Sánchez took advantage of his physique (he is 1.90m tall) to soon enter the Estudiantes quarry. Not in vain, he studied at the institute Ramiro de Maetztu from Madridhome of the ‘insane’ team.

His career was not too long. The sacrifice required to dedicate himself to elite basketball and his political concerns make Sánchez He left basketball when he was only 21 years old. to focus on his studies in Business and Economic Sciences.

«He was a team player, hardworking and always trained to the maximum. He was a man who did pineapple »

Mateo Quiros

Pedro Sánchez’s coach at Estudiantes

Mateo Quiros, coach of the Juvenil team in which Sánchez played, said that he had a lot of talent, although he always stood out for his toughness in the game. In a match in which he faced another team from the student quarry, coached by Pepu Hernandez (whom the President of the Government would later sign to be a candidate for the Madrid City Council), Sánchez, wearing number 111, was sent off in the second half of the match, which has its merit: he only played 14 minutes of the match.

«I remember that he was a team player, hardworking and always trained to the maximum. He was a man who did things. He was very quiet, but very hardworking.. But he was not a leader in the sense that everything revolved around him,” Quirós recalled in an interview in COPE.

Despite his drive and the desire he put into it, some of his teammates do not have good memories of Sánchez the player. Alfonso Reyes, for example, described it as a “package.”

2023-10-17 12:37:20
#rival #Pedro #Sánchez #remembers #time #basketball #player #bit #tough