Joaquín is a reference in Betis these days. Not only on the field as a living legend but also off it as an institutional representative of the club and as a reference shareholder. These days, the man from Porto gave an interview to the “Beticos” program on the official television of the Verdiblanco entity to review his career but also to offer his vision about the club’s current project and its future prospects, which the former footballer considers very optimistic from his internal vision as an active Heliopolitan and collaborator in sports management with Manu Fajardo.
«That is my commitment. My faith and my desire, my hope and believing so. I think we can make history. This club has its history, it is rich in history in every sense. I have a lot of faith and believe a lot in what is being done.. It’s not going to be easy, for sure. In fact it is not, but that is my commitment to the club. The faith and commitment I have for us to be a stable, reliable club and for people to identify more and more with what we are doing,” Joaquín states forcefully about the entity’s current line.
And Joaquín is absolutely integrated into the work idea led by Ángel Haro and José Miguel López Catalán and he shows it. «I do, from the first day. Even as a footballer there was that relationship. Knowing my commitment in every way, they have given me absolute trust and freedom to develop myself in the way where I feel most comfortable. Working alongside the technical direction and at the club, both with Ángel and Josemi, is wonderful. We tell things as they are. Everyday life is important. In that I feel important. Moving things that cannot be seen also helps. I’m happy. Learning, helping and being a link in this chain,” he continued.
At the same time, Joaquín gave his opinion about his friend and reference Rafael Gordillowhom he admires: «Being with Rafael is an enormous satisfaction. Not because of who he has been, which he is, but because of what ‘Gordo’ is like. I’m really telling you. “I admire him as a footballer, but as a person he is worth eating every day.”
And about his sporting career, he remembers what it cost him to start in the reserve team to reach the first team and those bad moments that made him mature and become tougher. «Look what life is, I arrive at Betis Deportivo and I am not an important player. It was a complicated year and in the end we ended up relegated. In fact, there comes a time when I consider leaving, because I saw that I had few options.. The coach was Esnaola, and the opportunities were going to be few. For whatever. And in the middle of the season, I spoke to him and told him: ‘Mister, I see that you are counting on me little and the options I see are to go on loan and change direction.’ At that time, Quijano and Valenzuela are the ones who stop me.”
Finally, he remembered the figure of his father, who recently died. «He has been my greatest defender and the one who has always told me to be calm, but it is true that he saw that I was a little bored. It’s something that has happened to me all my life, I was happy playing football. But in the end, I stayed,” Joaquín stated in the interview.
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