[Sport]The step in front of Thiago, the player of the five languages

[SougarLord]

It does not fail. At the end of each training session for the Spanish team, Thiago looks for a sidekick - Rodri, the City midfielder, is one of the favorites - to pass the ball with him. But of course, it is not passing the ball just like that. No. It is passing the ball being 40 or 50 meters from each other and, of course, without the ball touching the ground. "He does things from the Matrix," says a Federation employee who, like many others, gazes absorbed at the technical exhibition of Thiago Alcántara (Petro Vertonico, Italy, 29 years old), a footballer who seems to have been created with artificial intelligence, with a purity Unprecedented technique, but one that has not always been able to translate it -especially in the Spanish team- into the practical version of football.

 

Intermittent, ornamental or rhetorical are adjectives that have been accompanying the player's career, today, however, praised unceremoniously after his superb Champions League in Lisbon, directing the champion Bayern, from which by the way, everything indicates that he is leaving. "My future is the Ukraine game," he says, ignoring the rumors, which are more than rumors, that place him at Kloop's Liverpool next year. It would be a normal step for someone who was expelled from Barça (badly sold for 25 million in 2013). An atypical player, little friend of the Play Station - he is better at Pocha around a deck of cards - and with an incredible facility for languages. He handles five fluently: Spanish, Italian (he was born there), Portuguese (his parents are Brazilian), English (for education) and German.

 

 

His speech sprouts with the handling of strange words in the day-to-day life of footballers. He expresses himself with a correct vocabulary, and although the speech is sometimes spoiled by excess rhetoric, it usually offers reflections different from the platitudes. Yesterday, questioned as to whether he is at his peak, he said that he still has to learn. "It has been a very good year, we have achieved all the titles with the club, with a high level of football, but I think there is always room for improvement. Every year I try to learn from all my teammates, even the youngest who go arriving ", he said, and spinning and spinning left a message that he had prepared. "For example, I learn from who for me has been a reference in recent years, Sergio Busquets. Training with him you look at how he positions himself, how he leads the team ... it's a joy. We all have games that are not so good, but the presence in the field that Sergio has ...

Midfielders to continue evolving we have to look at Busquets ". He said it because he believes it, first, and because he is his friend, later.

 

SPECTACULAR PALMARÉS

Champion of all this year with Bayern, his record is tremendous. Nine Leagues (seven in Germany and two in Spain), four Cups (three and one), two Champions League (one and one) and two Club World Cups (one and one). With Spain, European champion sub'17 and sub'21. It was announced, together with Koke and Isco, as the new generation, the one that would replace, and improve, the great Spanish generation, extinct in 2012. However, things did not work out. Today it seems that they are going to leave. His coach is very clear about it.

 

"Here Thiago plays more inside, not as much as a pivot, as he does in his team. I know Thiago very well, I had him at Barsa B, and today he is a very mature player, who leads, who orders the team inside of the pitch, and with a quality beyond any doubt. Beware! Quality with the ball and without the ball, because defensively he steals a lot of balls, he is attentive to the pressure ... I'm seeing the same version of Thiago that I saw at Barça B, but improved, "explains Luis Enrique, who today, if nothing goes wrong, will give him the team management in the middle.

 

Because, to all this, Spain plays against Ukraine this afternoon in Valdebebas. The Ukrainians won the first game of this League of Nations to Switzerland, and one of the doubts is to know if Luis Enrique will reel Rodrigo, Thiago's cousin - they are not, but as if they were. It may also be time to see Ansu Fati, the sensation, as the starter.