Ahead of Spain’s clash with Italy, Juan Mata, a midfielder from the golden generation of Spanish football, gave an interview to the magazine Sportsmanship, hosted by the Laureus Academy, where he reminisced about his European Championship journey and shared his expectations for the current Spanish team.
You were part of the 2012 European Championship and 2010 World Cup winning team, what was it like being part of such a great team? “I was 22 years old at the time and had the opportunity to be surrounded by the best players in Spain, it was like a dream. Training with players like Xavi and Iniesta was exciting. The dream of playing a World Cup, winning a game came true very quickly, it was the beginning of my career. Luckily, the World Cup title wasn’t our only trophy, but it was certainly the most important one.”
How would you describe the chemistry within that Spanish team? “I was talking about this with a friend the other day, it was probably the best team I’ve ever been in, everyone understood their role, and in terms of the players’ individual abilities and the team’s overall strength, we were unbeatable, no modesty about it.”
Any interesting memories from that time? “There were many funny things in the team, I learned a lot from many of my teammates, like Xavi, Casillas, Torres, etc. And another funny thing is that every night before the game I would go to Reina’s room to play, and we would eat some croissants and hot chocolate, something that the doctor and nutritionist probably wouldn’t encourage us to do.”
Let’s talk about Iniesta, what does he mean to you? “I’ve loved watching him play since I was a kid, he made it look so easy, but it wasn’t. He’s not the ideal physique for football, he’s not tall, he’s not strong, he’s not fast, but you just can’t get the ball off his feet. I think football is a mental game, you need to have foresight and know what you are going to do next, Iniesta was a master of this. Off the field, he’s also a great person, and we still keep in touch even after he moved to Vissel Kobe.”
Tell us about your fondest memories of the European Championships “It must be when I scored the fourth goal in the final, it was an amazing feeling. My family, all of Spain, and the whole world were watching me. I came on at the last minute and scored against Buffon, and it completed our ‘European Championship-World Cup-European Championship’ loop. It was the last goal in this loop and I was happy to be able to score it.”
What is the key to winning a major tournament like the European Championship? “This is our first European Championship as one of the favourites since 2012, so it’s not easy to manage expectations. There are great players in the team, they are at their peak. To win a tournament like this, luck is very important, for example, hitting the post, sometimes it goes in, sometimes it comes out, so luck is one of the ingredients to be a winning team.”
What was the secret weapon of your team back then? We had great players in both the starting line-up and on the bench, the coach had a lot of options. We believed in ourselves, after winning the World Cup, we believed that we were the better team, and we knew that we had to prove it. There were no secret weapons, other than the team chemistry, the faith in the team, as I said before, and maintaining a good relationship between the coach, the players, the fans and the media. At that time, everyone was very united.
How would you rate Spain’s prospects for this European Championship? Spain has a new golden generation, Luis de la Fuente led them to the Nations League title, the federation trusts him, and he has his own ideas. I think Rodri is a great player, he’s one of the best midfielders in the world right now. Although there are many other great teams in this European Championship, I think Spain has a chance to win it again.
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