“At Real Madrid I thought I was just like them and didn’t communicate with anyone” | Relief

A month and a half ago, I cried in a cell in Taiche prison in Lanzarote. Today he is closer than ever to his professional football debut. This is the penultimate turn in the life of Moja Ramos (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 2000), the last bullet in a cartridge that had enough ammunition to see him stop in the First Division and get into the Spanish national team.

To get to this point, you will have to enter a labyrinth with many closed doors, which Moha still does not want to open because they are new and are sure to disgrace those who aspire to become a professional footballer. Deal, verbalization of situationsclicks his tongue and holds back tears while tells his whole life in an interviewthe first after leaving prison, which he had no particular desire to give. Opposite CD Tenerifeenter your salvation current, his agent and guardian angel, Borja Arjonaand even those who are responsible for their legal guardianship, because Moha is still on internal modethat is, he sleeps every day in the penitentiary center.

Is there a Moha before and another after July 27? (date he was jailed for a road safety offence)

There is a before and an after because I like to believe that eventually, based on what happens to you in life, you begin to see things differently, have different outlooks on life. Things have happened to me that life makes me rethink and think about. Yes, it has changed me because I don’t think or behave the same way for a while now.

If you look into the future, what will you see?

I look into the future and continue to have the same dream for as long as I can remember. I always wanted to be a footballer and achieve everything possible in my favorite sport. I still believe that I can come back and dedicate myself to work at the highest level. The club is giving me this opportunity again. This time, with the values ​​I have now that I didn’t have before, maybe I can achieve my dream.

What if we look into the past?

I see a boy with no experience, who does not understand either the situation or what surrounded me at that moment.

This past began when he was 14 years old at Real Madrid and ended when he was 19. He touched the sky and walked out the back door. A five-year period during which he had the best experience of his life, but also one of the worst. At 16, with the support of Llopis, the first team’s goalkeeping coach, he began training with champions Madrid under Zidane. At 17, he was called up to the Club World Championship, which he won with Solari. From there the compass broke.

You were very young, how did you do it?

To be honest, I never finished it. Otherwise we would be talking about a different story. I didn’t know how to cope with everything that was happening around me. He was a very innocent boy. It’s like you can’t believe it. Perhaps that’s what I was missing—that conviction, that understanding of the responsibility that comes with being around them. It was like living in a movie. I didn’t know how to make this movie a reality, and things happened along the path they showed me.

What’s going on that made you stop playing for the main team?

My way of doing things in everyday life. I probably already thought I was one of them, I thought I was a first team player, but in the end I didn’t draw with anyone. You do things and behave differently, and life teaches you that everything is wrong.

Weren’t they trying to make you see what was happening to you at that moment?

Everyone wanted to help me. I thought I understood this, that life was different, and over the years you realize that it is completely different, that everything falls under its own weight. Because you are very good, no matter who you are, life will put you in your place. I didn’t know how to see it, what was around me and what status of life was associated with being at this level. I can’t blame anyone. I alone am responsible for my actions. I regret that I didn’t understand everything earlier. Throwing accusations, blaming, I think this is not the point, but the assumption that I do not know how to cope with the naturalness with which I lead my life today. Life has to teach you and really show you how things are and how things work.

In the early morning of January 2019, his car collided with a taxi driver, who had to be hospitalized. He tested positive. After that, he hardly appeared in the main lineup. This episode was decisive for his departure from Madrid that summer and led to his imprisonment on 27 July.

What’s happened?

An accident, like any other. Everything has consequences and we are all responsible for our actions. This certainly had a big impact. To fall into the accident of these dimensions and become part of this entity.

This was the point of no return in Madrid.

There may have been many factors. An accumulation of things that cause a point.

Wasn’t that a big enough warning to wake up?

This was a serious warning, but innocence, unwillingness to see, unwillingness to assimilate what is happening around, makes you turn away and continue on your way. When a person already takes a step towards realizing that the actions he is taking are wrong, that is when everything begins to change little by little. You want to go back, but you can’t, life goes on and until you take a step forward and start accepting, nothing will change. I don’t know what would have happened to me if what happened to me had not happened to me, perhaps I would have followed the same line and we would have talked about something worse. Worse like what? Well, continue to be ignorant about life. You have to grow up and understand that life is something else. In this world nothing is given away.

Moha begins a wandering journey between assignments and movements. It’s hard for him to talk about it. Transfers to Birmingham where he matched with Bellingham and Real Union. In 2020, he signs a contract with Racing Santander for three years and lasts four months: “I don’t like to talk about it, I don’t know if it was depression, but I felt disappointed in myself, in the way I ruined the team. the opportunities I had at the time.” He finishes work and returns home. He hopes to return to Aviles Industrial and then to Las Palmas B. Until he returns to Tenerife in 2023.

Do you feel like you’ve been burning bullets?

Yes, life goes on, but I’m not 20 years old anymore. But now I’m home and have found myself again as a person and a footballer. Life brought me to the right place at the right time. I was very lucky after everything that happened to me that the club gave me the opportunity to believe in myself again, to have the opportunity to become a footballer… I will be eternally grateful. I want with all my strength and with all my soul to return what they do to me.

What happened was that on July 27 this year he entered prison to serve a four-month sentence imposed on him for the Madrid crash, suspended unless he committed another road safety offence. In the 22-23 season, when he played for Las Palmas, he drove without a license. The execution of his conclusion never reached him. Therefore, when his presence was recorded at a hotel in Lanzarote because he was about to play a friendly match against Tenerife B, the Guardia Civil were notified and arrested him at half-time in a friendly match against Union Yaiza.

How did you remember it?

I can explain it a thousand ways. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, not even my worst enemy. You don’t expect it because someone has already fixed their life. I am caught up in the moment when I have a very good life with my wife, with my family, dedicated to and for my work. And well, well, they caught me in a situation in which, as I already told you, in the end we… uh… That’s where I ended up.

It fails. It takes a few seconds and continues.

You don’t expect this. It takes you by surprise. This is a topic from many years ago that arose by chance. And well, I live it like a nightmare. I’m with my team during the preseason, and during the break the agents come and say that I have to accompany them. At this point, you are a little shocked by the uncertainty of what would have happened “if I hadn’t killed anyone.” And then the trials begin, which I endured for about a month. And what I ultimately thank you for is, look what I’m telling you. Living through this experience, there comes a moment when you have to make an internal decision: give up and let go, or vice versa, change your chip and become stronger. It was good for me because I knew how to channel it in the right direction. Mentally it made me a lot stronger than I thought. Today I have an ironclad mentality, I don’t know how many people who went through what I went through could be whole, solid and with things clear.

How do you realize in your head that you are playing a game in the morning and suddenly find yourself in a cell at night?

I spend the first days in shock. I don’t understand what’s going on. And every day you become stronger, things happen that people don’t see, that people aren’t used to living with. What I did to stay strong was to work out, constantly work out, exercise, even in the bedroom. I’m not saying I had facilities because after all in a place like this I doubt people have facilities, but they helped me perform my physical activities given the situation that was there. Everyone I met back then tried to help me, people I allowed to be around me. I tried to run away from everything that surrounded me. I read too. And I thought, talked to myself.

What were you saying?

A little bit of everything, what do I want for myself? What do I want in the future? You’re in a situation where you value even the smallest details of your daily life, and maybe that’s where it all makes sense to me right now. From getting up every morning to do what I enjoy most in life, which is playing football, to saying good morning to my wife. There the day had 72 hours. What if he cried? Yes, quite a bit. This is also part of the process of revealing everything you have inside, right? You take out things you may have kept there years ago.

Moha is still in the maze, but knows what she needs to do to find her way out. He is currently considering his professional debut in Tenerife. For this story, the penultimate chapter of which is recalled below, the first step would be to straighten up and end with an example of the ability to stop in time, in the broadest sense of the word. Otherwise, he also knows what kind of life awaits him.

What is the moment like when you leave prison?

I will be honest with you, I have an iron mentality, I want to eat everything, using even the smallest second. Even this interview with you has value for me. I used to miss everyday situations that I didn’t stop to think about. Everything makes sense to me now.

Tenerife knows how to wait for you.

The club was the key to everything. I’m very lucky that I can get up every morning and go to training, and that the club and all the people who are behind it all are there for me. In such situations, you understand who does and who doesn’t. I don’t have words to express how grateful I am.

The truth is that, if you think about it, just two months ago you were in prison and now you are in the Tenerife first team and closer than ever to your professional debut.

Very strong, right? This is the essence of life, in the blink of an eye everything can change and we need to be aware of even the smallest details and appreciate everything that surrounds us. Above all, have freedom.