The Pride of Vallekas

This is a re-post of a piece I wrote elsewhere on May 10, 2016 titled "Rayo Vallecano's grim future", just before the last game of the 2015-16 season. Just before Rayo got relegated for sure. I’m sitting in my chair, trembling, wondering how to express what I want to express, wondering how to start this very piece. I’m lost, because it doesn’t matter and yet it does. I’m lost because Luck has been cruel, Fate has been cruel. Life has been cruel. Even when the aesthetic is wonderful, Hope has been replaced with Fear, and Fear with submission. Our no. 1 and captain was out for the season before the season began. Our best goalkeeper then followed. Then our star signing. Then our hero who came back in January. Then our only other midfielder. Then our best defender. By the end, six players were out for the season. And that’s not counting the fact that at one point we were relying on a 17 year old from the Juvenil A because our top three goalscorers were out. Each obs...

When did you make the decision to pursue football and what motivated you to do so? I started to play football when I was 4. I always liked football and I really enjoy playing football. That's the best motivation I have to play football. How did it feel like progressing through the ranks of La Masia? I started playing football at Gimnàstic Manresa, a football club from my hometown (Manresa). When I was 9 years old I moved to Barça and I spend there 9 seasons. It was like living a dream and every time I progressed a step up I felt amazing and proud. What do you think La Masia does differently, apart from football philosophy, that sets it apart from other youth academies? I think that in La Masia you can progress as a footballer, but what's most important, you progress as a person. Thanks to them I keep studying my Business Degree at the university and I think that everyone that has the luck to spend some time in La Masia becomes a better footballer but what's more...