"The first time ever I got on a plane was for the UEFA Cup Final in Gothenburg, OM versus Valencia in 2004. I was 18 years old. I even missed my final exams to go and see the Final. One day, I saw that UEFA was opening ticket sales for the Final. I tried my luck, and my request was accepted! I went with my mom, who does not care for football at all, but she spent a lot of money to fulfill my dream of seeing a European final. Maybe it was my destiny.
I often came to Marseille when I was a football talent scout. It is a football city like Montevideo and Buenos Aires, both of which I love very much. When you are on the Corniche in Marseille, you feel like you are in the Ramblas in Montevideo. I live in a city with which I share many values, including simplicity. I am not a sophisticated person. I like the way I can interact with people here. We share this vision of life and this way, by tradition, of overcoming problems.
I come from Asturias, in the north of Spain. We have a strong sense of belonging to the region, perhaps like in Marseille. We have a very strong work ethic, especially because of the mining heritage of the region. All my family was very strongly linked to the mine and the steel industry. This created in us a strong sense of work and sacrifice.
The values I was taught, and my education at home, were to strive for excellence. My father told me when I was a child that my job was to study and make my parents proud at school. That is why I never wanted to disappoint them, because with all the sacrifices they made for me, I felt I had to give something back.
I played football every day when I was a kid. I loved Sacchi's AC Milan. I admired Dejan Savicevic. He was not a superstar: he was not the most popular player, but he was the one who managed to make the difference. I also supported Sporting Gijon".
When I was 12 years old, I said to myself that I would work in a football club. That was my only goal. I dreamed of this. Life has given me opportunities that I never imagined I would have. What happened to me was a dream.
"Everything I did in my life was geared towards this dream. As a child and then as a teenager, I had notebooks and binders: I used to write down the formations of all the teams in Europe. When I was a child, I liked to write about all this. I kept all this at my mother's house.
My mother made all the sacrifices possible. My family’s financial situation was modest. Every week, my mother bought 20 VHS tapes to record football matches. In Spain, we were lucky to have a TV broadcaster showing all the matches from all the countries. I spent all my afternoons and even nights watching football. I started to watch every game to know all the players and analyze all the leagues. When I was 12-14 years old, I started to organize my life around the games that were on TV. I had just had a major injury. I knew then that I would never become a professional player. I had a website that I created when I was 12. I was analyzing players. I was writing reports on players in Europe, young players. I was trying to anticipate the 16- or 17-year-old players who were going to become important players later on.
When I was 16, I wrote a letter to all the European clubs to offer my services. Three clubs answered me. PSV Eindhoven, first of all, thanking me for my courage and for the reports I sent them. I saw the person who answered me at PSV at the African Cup of Nations in 2004. I introduced myself and thanked him. Bayer 04 Leverkusen also replied to me, as did Newcastle United. Newcastle sent me a standard report and told me how to write these reports. At the time, this gave me a lot of confidence.
I got my baccalaureate. I used to like social sciences and history and geography. I wanted to study journalism but there was no university in my area. I could not go to Madrid because my family could not afford it. So, I studied law, but it was not a success".
Childhood
I was lucky to start kicking my first football very early. My father used to be a coach at the Toulon Var Sporting football club, where I played until I was 17. He trained me from a very young age, and it’s only when started playing 11-a-side football that I met other coaches. But it was my father who shared his passion. We were talking about some memories with him the other day: when he would take my Playstation away, I could not care less, but when he told me I could not play football, that was real punishment!
I must confess I was not an easy kid. I would do stupid things, especially at school. I used to hide my bad marks and only show him the good ones. So when we would receive the term report he would have a completely different perception of my work at school. I can only laugh about it now…
Football really helped me focus on something positive. I remember when I was 13 or 15 years old, at the end the matches on Sunday afternoons, I would continue playing with my friends! Football made me feel good about myself.
My dad was always pushing me, especially at school, which is perfectly normal. I did my best, but to be honest I never really liked school. My life was just about football, football again and always more football!... I did not quit working at school, I did try to be a good kid and have good marks, but for me, it was football first and foremost. Pretty early in my life, it was clear it would become my life.
"Beppe Corti gave me the opportunity to work in Italy. He was a recruiting director at Atalanta and he made me a football scout. It was a dream to work in Italy, but I did not speak the language when I arrived. I worked hard to catch up. I wanted to learn Italian so bad. I read books in Italian, even though I did not understand everything. My computer, my phone, my car: I switched the language to Italian. When I was going abroad, I would be looking to speak Italian. Everything around me was in Italian. In six months, I could speak and understand the language.
It is important to fail in life. Everybody fails, once in a while. When I left Atalanta for Sassuolo, I was 27 years old, I was head of recruitment at Sassuolo. This made me change many things and principles in my life. I understood that there were many things to change in me. I had great responsibilities. I asked myself many questions. One of the answers was to start traveling around Europe to understand the different football cultures, to try to get the best of each football type. I had to rebuild myself personally and question all the certainties that I had at the time.
After Sassuolo, I joined Juventus and I met Javier Ribalta there. He opened all the doors for me. He is not just a friend; he is the brother I never had. I have enjoyed working every day for two years with my best friend. It was amazing.
Javier and I are very different. He is more intuitive and the most talented person I know in terms of finding the best players. He has a sharp mind. I need to come to my conclusions by analyzing everything. At Juventus, we were looking for a left-back and were comparing Alex Sandro to another player. It took me 10 minutes to go through my arguments. Javier simply said: "We have to take Alex Sandro, because he is better than the other one". I was analyzing everything. I was even sick of it. Meeting Javier, who has a different mentality from mine, also helped me to see the small details that I was not aware of before.
It might be the Juventus mentality, but I believe that rules matter. There are sacred rules in football. I believe we must go back to a football with codes and respect. We need very strong and concrete rules. There must be no anarchy or freedom in the management of a sports group. At Juventus, you knew that if you could not do your job properly, you were dead. But if you were not able to make yourself respected either, people would find you stupid. Respecting the club is fundamental. I am the prime representative of the club every single day. It is paramount to create a strong institution that is respected by the employees, the players, and everyone else. It is essential to consistently show that there is an institution above everything else.
"The potential of OM is very high. We are a social pillar of the city of Marseille. The first few weeks after I was appointed President, I was on auto-pilot. Then came a period of reflection where I still am. I am thinking about how I can optimize the resources that I have at my disposal. I am now a public figure. With the job comes a lot of responsibility and expectations, but this will not change my personality. I believe that football is in a constant transformation and the most important thing is to anticipate the cycles of evolution. The clubs that have succeeded are those that have established a long-term, viable project, with a solid identity.
I have worked at many clubs and I have realized that each one of them is very different. The ideas implemented in one might not be suitable in another. For example, I could not do what I did at Juventus at Valencia, where I was Sporting Director. You have to try to understand the history and the identity of the club. Football clubs have a heart and soul.
There is a unique feeling that is passed on from generation to generation. That little, special thing that makes you support a football club and not another one, those values. You have to understand them to be manage a football club. You cannot create a project without respecting the identity of the club. You can have some good short-term results, but to build a long-term project, especially in a club with passionate fans, you must adopt the values that have defined that club. I think it is important to give an identity to the club and to make the supporters feel that they are part of this project.
It is a personal challenge. I never would have imagined this when I started as a football scout. I have been working long and hard on this. I take a lot of inspiration from my time with Mateu Alemany. I learned so much by his side. He is the greatest football manager in Europe. In my two seasons with him in Valencia, every day was a masterclass for me to understand my job better.
I can only be successful if I can create a club identity, and make people proud of what we do, as a club. Obviously, we also need good results. My personal motto – the one advice I would give to my 12-year-old self – is as they say in Spain: “Nunca dejes de creer”. Literally: never stop believing".
The potential of OM is very high. We are a social pillar of the city of Marseille. The first few weeks after I was appointed President, I was on auto-pilot. Then came a period of reflection where I still am. I am thinking about how I can optimize the resources that I have at my disposal. I am now a public figure. With the job comes a lot of responsibility and expectations, but this will not change my personality. I believe that football is in a constant transformation and the most important thing is to anticipate the cycles of evolution. The clubs that have succeeded are those that have established a long-term, viable project, with a solid identity.
I have worked at many clubs and I have realized that each one of them is very different. The ideas implemented in one might not be suitable in another. For example, I could not do what I did at Juventus at Valencia, where I was Sporting Director. You have to try to understand the history and the identity of the club. Football clubs have a heart and soul.
There is a unique feeling that is passed on from generation to generation. That little, special thing that makes you support a football club and not another one, those values. You have to understand them to be manage a football club. You cannot create a project without respecting the identity of the club. You can have some good short-term results, but to build a long-term project, especially in a club with passionate fans, you must adopt the values that have defined that club. I think it is important to give an identity to the club and to make the supporters feel that they are part of this project.
It is a personal challenge. I never would have imagined this when I started as a football scout. I have been working long and hard on this. I take a lot of inspiration from my time with Mateu Alemany. I learned so much by his side. He is the greatest football manager in Europe. In my two seasons with him in Valencia, every day was a masterclass for me to understand my job better.
I can only be successful if I can create a club identity, and make people proud of what we do, as a club. Obviously, we also need good results. My personal motto – the one advice I would give to my 12-year-old self – is as they say in Spain: “Nunca dejes de creer”. Literally: never stop believing.
President - Olympique de Marseille
