Álvaro García (October 27, 1992) never thought that he would make a living as a footballer, but time made him wiser. From his school in Utrera to San Fernando, in Second B, and from there a loan to Álvaro Cervera’s Cádiz that showed him that he was wrong. In 2018 he ended up at Rayo, and today he is one of the captains and most beloved players in a team that hosts Real Madrid tonight (9:00 p.m., Movistar). —Real Madrid doesn’t usually have a good time in Vallecas.—Neither Madrid nor anyone else has a good time in Vallecas. As soon as they enter the locker room they already see that it is a different field and that they are not going to be comfortable. —Fran García is a good friend. Have you spoken to him this week?—Fran is a machine. As a person and as a footballer. We miss him a lot, in the locker room and on the field, but we are happy for what he is experiencing in Madrid. These days I haven’t written to him, he’s going to run around a lot later and mess us up (laughs). Last year he almost scored against us at the Bernabéu.—You are from Utrera, like Ceballos.—Yes. I spent my childhood there. With my friends and playing soccer all day. I lived next to the school, which is where I started playing. I remember that from my bedroom window I could see the school yard. It was impossible for me to escape because my parents were going to catch me (laughs). Related News Standard football No Sergio Camello: “You won’t see me buying a shirt for 600 euros, when my mother earns 700 a month” Rubén Cañizares—What do you mean? What do they dedicate?—My father is a carpenter and my mother is a housewife. —Housewife, that job is completely undervalued.—That’s right. A job that no one pays our mothers and the reality is that thanks to them the houses are always clean and food is on the table. —The profession of carpenter is hard.—Yes, yes. Look, my father got me to work with him for several summers, when I was studying High School, so that I wouldn’t be hanging around all summer, and I saw that I didn’t like that and I started to study better. With my father I learned that what I didn’t want was to be a carpenter. It is true that I had never thought that I could be a footballer, but something linked to sport. That’s why I studied a cycle of Physical Education and then started INEF. —When your parents saw you play soccer when you were little, what did they say to you? —My father always went and watched me play in a corner of the field, without bothering or saying anything to me. It was my mother, who understands less about soccer, who told me this or that.—Where did you play in your childhood?—I played in the typical school league and as a child I moved to Club Deportivo Utrera, where I played until last year of youth. Then I went to Ceuta to play in the Honor Division and then I ended up at San Fernando in Second B. I was there for six months and Granada signed me, who loaned me to Racing and then to Cádiz.—Is that when you realize that Can this feed you?—Yes, it was like that. We rose from Second B to Second, and the following year we played the playoff to ascend to First. That’s when I realize that I can be a professional.—And he did it, and the road was not easy. How many times have you trained with hardly any sleep since you became a father?—Many. The reality of being a father is much harder than we were told. I have a four-and-a-half-year-old son and an eleven-month-old girl, and the oldest hasn’t slept until he was three. When Álvaro was born, it was five or six in the morning, and it’s not that he didn’t sleep, it’s that he also couldn’t stop crying. It was incredible. And I couldn’t go to another room and leave my wife there alone. I only went to another room the night before the game. The rest, I got up, helped and tried to calm my son, but the reality is that we had a hard time with Álvaro the first few months. Here we are alone, we have no one, neither grandparents nor any family member. —It is strange that an elite soccer player who plays for a team in Madrid does not live in a wealthy area. —I lived in Ensanche, next door, but Álvaro was born a little before the pandemic and we lived in a small apartment without a balcony , I didn’t have any outside room for my son to play. So I tried to look for a larger apartment with a terrace, and we found one belonging to a former Rayo player in the San Nicasio neighborhood, in Leganés. And there we went. I don’t need a 200 meter chalet to be happy. I prioritize the happiness of my family. My son is very happy at school, my wife has her friends there and so do I. —El Rayo is one of the few teams that maintains its own identity, today almost forgotten in elite football. —The humility of this club and its people is evident. Humble and supportive people who are always with us and with their neighborhood. And the group of players are like that too. Maybe they put four in, you go to the locker room and see how they applaud and encourage you. In other fields this is practically impossible. You have that or you don’t have it and Vallecas has it. And it is transmitted. That’s why we don’t stop running, pressing and helping our teammates. It’s what our hobby teaches us. In Vallecas everything is different and we do not follow what society wants to impose on you.—Álvaro Cervera, Paco Jémez, Iraola, Francisco, Íñigo… He has had coaches of all kinds. What do you ask of your coach?—Sportingly, to exploit my qualities, I need a coach who gives me space on the counterattack and who lets me run into space, like Cervera or Iraola did. I like that the team is vertical and we play a lot on the wing. I don’t like to make him self-conscious inside. And on a personal level, I like clear and sincere coaches so that the message gets across well. —What is this Lightning for?—First, to save us. And then, I hope we can do something nice in the Cup, but the priority is to save ourselves. —How do you deal with the noise around James?—That noise doesn’t reach the locker room. James moves a lot, he is an idol in Colombia and it is normal that they want him to play, but the coach is the one who decides.—Would he understand that he left in January?—I am not in his head and I cannot think for him, but of course I would understand. We all want to play.
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