It’s not a ‘hard drug’ senior, elite football is the hard drug. There is a fulfilment and fondness in seeing “his” kids succeed – David de Gea, Thiago Alcântara, Koke, Álvaro Morata and Dani Carvajal head a long list – but he sought something else. After a 10-game spell at Rayo, Lopetegui started with youth football, leading Spain to European titles at Under-19 and Under-21 level, in 20 respectively. And the hard moments make the character.” Even the most difficult moments because that’s when a coach’s intervention has to be at its best. When they don’t want you … ”Ĭan you actually enjoy it? “Like a little kid. There’s a pause, a smile: “For as long as they want you. Your passion and energy aren’t governed by age you adapt, improve daily, change. You have to overcome the biggest obstacle, which is being able to take the pressure and take it off your players. You have to learn to live with that craziness if not you die. There’s no escaping that coaching takes a lot out of you. “You see yourself and sometimes you like what you see more than others,” he admits, “but the conclusion I’ve reached is I am what I am. Sevilla’s captain, Ivan Rakitic, asked to describe his coach, says: “When he gets home I’m sure he explains to his wife and daughter.” Lopetegui protests: “If something football-related comes up, it’s not because I mention it but because they ask.” But then he adds, laughing: “I’m fortunate that for now my family accept me as I am.” Intense is one word for a man who can end games looking as exhausted as his players. On Thursday, his Sevilla team face West Ham in the Europa League. Lopetegui nearly went to Wolves and held the most high-pressure jobs in Spain: Madrid and the selección. Sometimes it’s like giving a pill: you have to deliver it the right way.” It’s not the same, like looking at the same river from two banks. “I remember Luis Aragonés telling me: ‘Kid, listen, the first thing is: take off the shirt.’ What’s he talking about? Of course I’ve taken it off. Then came coaching, a transition towards a profession, a calling, he dissects with fascinating depth: the methods applied, the price exacted, the ideals. If I didn’t play, at least I could see games for free.”Ī young Julen Lopetegui stands next to his father, José Antonio, as his sisters get a lift. The second – get this – was football journalist. But when I did the typical psychoanalyses, the ‘what will you be?’ tests at school, the first answer to come out was footballer. My brother was a pelotari at a high level. My dad was well known in an era when stonelifting was big, a living. “I’m the black sheep of the family, hooked on football from the start. “I had a chance to be professional but my passion was football,” he says. Julen could play Basque pelota too, a basket for a hand, the ball travelling faster than any sport on earth. And his brother Joxean was a professional pelotari. His uncle Luis, Aguerre I, had been a harrijasotzailea too, known throughout the land. His father, José Antonio, was a harrijasotzailea, a champion Basque stonelifter who competed under the name Aguerre II, held the record for raising 22 100-kilo cylinders in a minute and rejected proposals from a promoter linked to Al Capone to become a heavyweight boxer. I came out twisted,” Julen Lopetegui says.
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