“When they tell you that your health is in danger, there is no other decision than to withdraw”

He had to throw in the towel and announced it on May 24 after chewing on the decision for a year trying to recover from his knee. How does he feel?

I was injured again on the penultimate day of the previous season, when we were playing against Rayo Majadahonda to save us, hurting the knee that I injured in Zaragoza in 2020. I started the rehabilitation as I had to, I did the impossible to have a good feeling again , but it couldn’t be, it affected me on a daily basis, I couldn’t go for a walk with my daughter, go down stairs… It’s a hard decision, but there is no other when they tell you that what is really in danger is your health. what remains of my life. It’s time to take a step to the side. As much as it hurts to stop doing what I love most, there was no other option.

That injury in January 2020 against Numancia in the right knee was serious, there was cartilage damage. Was it almost a miracle to come back?

It was a very tough recovery and in fact the prognoses were not good for me to return, many people around me did not trust me at all that I would do so. My dream was that, I did it after a long process, with six months off. Return in the playoffs against Elche perhaps it was a bit hasty, I had to stop for another five months (in December 2020) and afterwards I did recover good feelings although to participate very little with Zaragoza, but I felt good training until I left with Amorebieta on loan ( January 2022) and played the remaining 16 games. Probably, at that stage and in what I could have been at Badajoz and at Rayo Majadahonda, if I had not put in the effort that I gave and given up, I would not have played again. By being guided by sensations, by working very hard and by that enthusiasm I was able to continue enjoying this for a while longer.

At the time of hanging up your boots and at 34 years old, after passing through Real Sociedad, Mallorca, Zaragoza, Amorebieta, Badajoz and Majadahonda, what balance or what grade do you put on your career?

I don’t give myself any marks, but I am absolutely proud and satisfied with the path I have taken, no one has given me anything and I have given my soul every day and every day. I really like to have a clear conscience and that’s how I feel, because I always gave everything to reach my highest version, with better and worse moments, but at all times being prepared and working hard to be the best possible.

There will also be thorns stuck in…

Of course there are, things that I would have liked to celebrate or at least fight for. I would have wanted to consolidate myself in the Real Sociedad in the first team and it couldn’t be, in Mallorca return the club to First and play in the elite, I couldn’t either, the same as in Zaragoza, when I came to go up and return the entity to its place, or save the category with Amorebieta, something that I did achieve in Majadahonda, although this year we have been relegated but I have not been able to participate. Zaragoza is probably the most important thorn of all, but I don’t get bloody about it, because I always did everything in my power to achieve that and any other dream I had. I don’t consider it a failure, I value how I faced everything, how I fought, and I feel proud. When you do everything you can you have nothing to blame yourself for.

At Real Sociedad he entered the youth team and spent more years than at Zaragoza, but this is the team of his professional life for years at the club, right?

Without a doubt, I spent 12 years at Real Sociedad, but with a first team number for only two. The club where I consolidated myself and where I feel that has been the place in my career is Zaragoza. For me it is a vital part at all levels, the city and the team conquered me from the beginning, I am another Zaragoza fan, I am going to stay and live here…

Your best and worst memory of those seven years at Zaragoza?

I keep everything, because both the good and the bad made me a better footballer and person, they gave me the opportunity to learn and grow. The best thing would be the arrival because with perspective I am already clear that it was the best decision of my career, that’s how I feel. Worst? The farewell, having to leave what I feel is my home, the way I had to leave, I would have liked to at least say goodbye on the grass, but that is not chosen.

Did you have the dream of retiring from Zaragoza?

The only thing I thought about was leaving Zaragoza in the First Division and I saw myself ready to help with that. Obviously being able to retire at the club that has given me everything and I have been so happy would have been the bomb, although I didn’t consider it because when I was here I always saw that goodbye very far away.

He has been in seven of the 11 seasons that the club has completed in the Second Division after being relegated in 2013, at the very least he is a privileged observer to know why the team has not yet risen in all this time…

Unfortunately history and our magnificent fans do not play the games. Football is complicated, money helps but it is not a guarantee of success and the Second Division is very hard. Every season there are 16 teams that aspire to promotion in one way or another. If it has not happened in these years it is obvious that something is failing, we have to keep trying, we live from that illusion and hope and wish that it will happen next season.

Since you arrived in January 2016, you have played 165 official matches for Zaragoza. Does this shirt weigh more? Is that pressure from history and fans a double-edged sword?

You have to know how to handle that pressure, because the responsibility of having so many people behind you exists. However, I always saw it as lucky to have that context, it makes you demand more of yourself, to be aware that your level always has to be very high. That’s very good for a player and I loved it, because it doesn’t encourage you to relax or self-confidence, that’s a nice pressure that we footballers must know how to handle.

He leaves in July 2022, after only two months of the new ownership, which has been in place for two years and has made a very strong investment, but without palpable results in sports. How have you seen this change in the club?

It is unquestionable that the sporting reality remains the same and that is what counts, because the team is still in the Second Division and in these two years it has not been close to going up. I think that the property is showing in the economic issue that it does a lot to make things change, although patience in football does not exist. I include myself there too, we all thought that with the new ownership, with that financial muscle, everything was going to go more smoothly, but that is what football has and what makes it so beautiful, that that does not rule and is not the most important factor. decisive. There are things that the new owners are doing very well, but in many others they need to improve.

What do you think of the return of Víctor, with whom you were already, and his permanence next season?

For me, Víctor was very brave in agreeing to return, because he really had nothing to gain and he already said that he had no need of any kind. With the career he has in the club, he showed that he is who he is for a reason, that is why he is loved so much. When he came to us (18-19) he did so with a ready-made team in which he could not participate in the configuration, but he could participate the following summer, when he was able to get involved. I think he was right, although it is true that with the pandemic everything went wrong and we were all very bad. Having Víctor there, I hope we can achieve what we all want.

Zaragoza plans more than a dozen signings for next season. Do you see so much change necessary?

What I think isn’t going to matter too much either. Cordero and Víctor are the ones who know the squad and the category best. All Zaragoza fans, or an immense majority, agree that the group that was there this last season was not one to be so low, I don’t know if it was for a direct promotion as the team started, with those five victories in a row that it seemed that everything was shot, but the level of the squad was much higher than what was demonstrated.

He left two years ago and there are still many of his former teammates in that locker room.

I have a relationship with all of them and we have been writing to each other throughout the season. I perceived that suffering that they felt in such a complicated and hard year, I know what it feels like in that situation and it is frustrating to do everything possible to perform well and for the results not to happen and you go down. They have lived a very complicated season, in those moments the players suffer a lot, although people may believe otherwise.

You have already said that you are staying to live in Zaragoza, but where do you direct your future?

I’m not sure, I’m passionate about everything that has to do with football. I could like being a coach and I have the courses for it. I don’t know how to say yet, I need to get my bearings a little, because I’ve been doing the same thing my whole life and now I’m in the landing phase. I am open to everything and I want to think calmly about what I can best fit.

In La Romareda and as a member he will be seen.

This season I haven’t been able to go to the field much, but my brother and I have the subscription together and we will continue to go there, to suffer and support, to hopefully experience a promotion. I always tell my friends and people who know me that Zaragoza and Real Sociedad are my two teams, with the other I have to enjoy the great moment they are experiencing and with Zaragoza we have to suffer more now, but I hope that soon I can Enjoying them both, that would be what would make me happiest.