Anuar Touhami, the sweat and pressure of fringe players: ‘I saw teammates crying from helplessness after the whistles on the pitch’ | Sport
Midfielder Anuar Touhami (Ceuta, 29) is in his seventh season at Real Valladolid, a young player who has managed to break into the first team and has earned the love of the fans with his hard work. Anuar is the representative of the majority of mid-level players, far from the limelight, but key for coaches and dressing rooms. Pucela is making his first two visits to the Santiago Bernabéu (this Sunday at 5pm) and the Camp Nou (Saturday 31st), temples where players trained on muddy pitches or squares with school backpacks, and the poles continue to be stunned when they look up. The Blanquivioletas are back in the League as the “elevator team”, with two relegations and two promotions. Anuar celebrates not being able to “stay in the hole” like other teams that have been relegated to the Second Division and are destined for “hell”. In the conversation at the José Zorrilla stadium, there is a certain hesitation when he is asked about the classic dilemma between modest passions: what do you prefer: 10 matches in a row or a good year to qualify for Europe or to go far in the Cup? “Imagine winning the title with your team or reaching Europe, it must be unimaginable, but now we have to calm down,” says Ceuti.
Anuar’s dreams contrast with the laurels and millions of other football, the one that protects Real Madrid in the Super League, criticized by the player Pucelano, who considers it “unfair” to prevent “surprises like those of Girona, who thought about saving themselves and ended up in the Champions League and fighting for the League.” In his opinion, the fan values these modest efforts and achievements more than the frequent big games that this model would entail. He is also not convinced by the attraction of Saudi Arabia, where millionaires seduce young teammates every season, and not as a career cemetery: “Everyone decides, but if you want to leave your mark, the impact will be in the top league.”
Football evolves geographically and socially, and the protagonists become icons. Anuar avoids speaking about politics because he “doesn’t have much knowledge” and he avoids labels. “In the dressing room we talk more about football, families, plans…”, he points out, and in the dressing room unity and success are forged: “Failure comes when each player goes to his ball”. He has seen high-quality colleagues, but bad management or a bad environment have faded into the background. “It’s not always the best who come, but rather the most disciplined or lucky”, he admits. And remember that he arrived in Valladolid at the age of 13 to fight to establish himself at the club. He has achieved this the hard way, with fans who applaud the efforts of secondary players like Anuar, who admits he is rarely in the news, but his role is to support the team: “The secondary players, they set the level because they put pressure on the holder, if not, they relax and the level drops.” The manager, he continues, must learn to substitute and push to learn to gain ownership. This requirement makes him understand how psychology helps football, as well as what surrounds him: “The worst thing about football is not being able to do what you want when you want. If you lose, you want to take a walk, but you can’t because people are going to stop you. We live in a gilded cage, we have a privilege and we should be grateful for it, but because of our job we can’t do simple things.”
This new era of football threatens the stability of squads on social media, subject to harsh criticism or dangerous praise. Anuar pays little attention to other people’s opinions, but asks that the fan “understand the style of each person” rather than demanding that the physical footballer “decide the game” or vice versa. Anu He has seen young teammates running to check their mobile phones after a good game to read the positive comments. “But when you play badly, you are going to get killed, we should encourage talks with professionals to understand the dangers of networks. People should also see that it can cause harm.”
This constant pressure affects both the team’s star and the low-level players, but it is important for the coaches and players in the dressing room. The Valladolid fans, the interviewee thanks, protect young players like him because they understand how difficult it is to establish themselves in the elite. Over the past summer, Pucelá has lost several young players from home, some of them controversial, and the management has contradicted Anuar’s recipe for settling in the First Division: “It is very important to have players from the quarry.” This institutional upheaval, accompanied by criticism of the presidency of Ronaldo Nazario and last year’s confrontation with coach Paulo Pezzolano, has finally been noticed on the pitch.
A footballer’s relationship with whistles is complicated, explains Anuar, due to the mental burden it carries in the game: “It’s very difficult. There are difficult moments and 11 opponents. It’s hard to hear whistles when a teammate fails, even if the result is not bad. If you feel uncomfortable, let them whistle, but in difficult moments you need support.” The midfielder takes this resonant affliction seriously: “I can’t think of whistling at someone who misses a pass. Last year, we were fighting for promotion and we heard shouts at the coach. There are people here, and the coach has a family. I’ve seen teammates who were whistled and then cried in the dressing room from helplessness and despair.”
This profession, according to Seuti, offers great advantages and fulfills a childhood dream of living thanks to the ball. He, the father of a girl, reflects on the future of football when he walks with his child and finds squares and parks where there are no children running after a ball: “There are many rules and you can’t play because you violate the terraces or the neighbors. When I see seven children in the park on TikTok or Instagram, it paralyzes me. They have to play, live the experience. Perhaps there is more talent in underdeveloped countries because they continue to play on the street.”
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