‘He’s going to blow it up in January’ | Relief

Alex Berenguer is a special case. A player of extremely high competence, often overshadowed by the Williams brothers, but through his performances and belief has become a mainstay of the Athletic Club. It would be impossible to understand this championship team without the man who scored the most important penalty in the last four decades of the red and white. And getting to this point is also impossible without a mentality that would change your life, your present then and your future until now.

We are standing. With the start of La Liga, Valverde finally decided on Gorka Guruzete as a striker. A movement of figures whose main victim will be Berenguer. Iñaki moved to the right flank, and with him Alex to the bench. From September 2023 to January 2024, he did not appear in the starting lineup again. He scored two important goals against Valencia and Celta Vigo, adding a draw and an opening win, but his status remained unchanged in the first six months of the season, which were presented as the key to his future.

And this situation arose due to the fact that there was less than a year left until his contract expired. And without negotiations. If he wasn’t, it was partly because of him and his belief that there would be a better time to talk about a new contract. “He’s convinced he’s going to blow it up in January.”

So he thought, convinced that the departure of Iñaki Williams for the African Cup would give him the opportunity to prove himself and prove his worth in order to continue his career in Bilbao, where he was happy, despite this change in sporting reality.

And January came. And he broke it. Precisely in a San Mamés derby like the one this Sunday. Without Iñaki, Valverde gave him a place in the starting line-up in Seville for a few days, and the team made sure of a confident victory. In the Cup against Eibar, he was reserved, like the important players, thinking about the derby that was on the horizon and in which he had to occupy the right lane.

He started against Real Sociedad and responded with a brace. His first two goals in 2024 will be historic. His first goal that changed his reality and made him from then to this day a reliable player and the best substitute that Valverde could have dreamed of. “He’s just another starter,” Valverde has said many times.I am convinced that in terms of level he is one of those who repeat compositions.

In the final stretch of the season, he played a further eleven games as a starter and scored four key goals.. The double against Girona was important to continue the Champions League dream, but even more decisive was his penalty at the Metropolitano, in the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey to take advantage of the first leg and confidently face the return leg in La Cartuja. He was already a leader.

And there, in Seville, he assumed that he would not be in the starting lineup. I knew he would have his moment. And it was the fourth penalty, the one that loosened the Barge’s mooring.

His shirt fluttered, as did the regrets of a club that had lost six finals in the last 15 years. It was the cap to several months of high quality that continued into this season despite doubts about his suitability for the team.

His change is evident in the numbers. He scored just three La Liga goals in all of 2023, not counting a brace in the Cup against Eldense, but his tally increased in 2024. To the six goals he scored in the second half of last year (plus the penalty mentioned in the final), we must add the two he has scored this season, as well as five assists in recent months and two more at the end of last year. That is, Berenguer scored 15 goals in this historic year of 2024. A key player beyond being or not being a starter.

“He is an important player not because of today – after the Olympic goal in Vigo – but because of what he does during the season. It’s always a shock if he doesn’t lose his temper from the beginning and doesn’t react very well.. We are short of players and we have two more tournaments coming up next year,” the coach said last May, making it clear he wanted an extension.

Key and very long negotiations

Today it seems difficult to think about it, but a year ago there were doubts about its extension. He received many calls, including from Marcelino García Toral, who wanted to recruit him for his project in Villarreal. Berenguer waited to “destroy it” in January, as well as in the following months. The scene was completely different.. He was not a substitute who sat down to talk, but one of La Cartuja’s heroes and a vital player for his coach. As if that weren’t enough, the possibility of Nico Williams’ possible escape was in the air.

The club were convinced that he should extend his contract and made a significant financial effort, despite Alvaro Djalo being signed for €15 million. The role of Valverde and Mikel Gonzalez played a key role in convincing the player, who only signed a new contract on July 7.when the previous one has already expired. Of course, the agreement had been closed a few days before, but it was decided to announce it on the 7th, which coincided with the third month of the cup title and his return from vacation. The photo of the advertisement posted on Gabarra deserved it..