Pere Romeu: “Players must give their all, no one has a guaranteed position” | Football | Sport

– You can ask whatever you want. Pere Romeu (Barcelona, ​​30) is frank and transparent. One of the few Barcelona coaches with full Barcelona heritage, he arrives after training with a whistle in his pocket and laughs when he takes it out. After three seasons watching Barcelona women’s matches from the stands as an assistant – albeit with more weight at the club – he is now the first coach since saying goodbye to Jonathan Giraldes. He didn’t know what he would replace, but when the time came, he began to plan the season from the shadows, without neglecting his responsibilities. Initially, he played youth football in the Sarria and Hospitalet teams, first as a player (he broke his cruciate joint and meniscus), and then as a coach. Black coffee and fascinated by creativity, perfection lies in its normality. He left high school halfway through – he admits he “wasn’t the best student ever” – to devote himself to coaching courses. In 2017 he moved to La Masia as a coach, always in the men’s team and as a second. He was introduced to “professional football” in Romania, at Viitorul Constanta, alongside Ruben de la Barrera for a year until 2021. “We terminated the contract and returned. I was looking for a team for several months and Jonathan called me. I didn’t know him, and neither did anyone else. staffonly Markel Zubizarrete. I didn’t master femininity, but I came with my eyes closed,” he admits. Outside of football, he has friends for life. His frowning and serious expression on the grass is deceptive: he is funny, and his eyes narrow when he smiles. Without hobbies or superstitions, he is not particularly meticulous, but demanding. Unknown to many; He doesn’t attach any importance to it. And it sends a message of confidence: he always wanted to be a coach. Now the Champions League starts against Manchester City (21:00, Dazn) and he wants to take Barcelona to the top again.

Ask. What advice did Jonathan Giraldes give you before you left?

Reply. He told me: “Be yourself. Pass it on as you are.” I remain as I am without hesitation. And it is obvious that it could not be otherwise.

TO. And what is it?

R. Very passionate about what I do and the game, and quite calm in everyday life. I had an incredible family, very good friends who always supported me, because in this world one day you are here and the next you are not. I started working as a trainer when there was no money. But Pere Romeu is not the same as he was five years ago, and will not be the same in a year.

TO. Is football more of an obsession or a passion?

R. Passion. Although there is always a degree of obsession in it.

TO. It gives the impression that he is serious.

R. Not at all… One important person in the club told me that he is a good professional and that he is not that serious. I liked it. I look like a serious guy, but in reality I am a very open person with whom you can talk about anything.

TO. Are you tired of being the center of attention?

R. I don’t really like social networks, I don’t spend time on them. I’m on my way. I don’t know if this will increase the coach’s ego in the long run, but today I am the same person with a different responsibility.

TO. Barcelona is his first experience as a first professional coach. Are you afraid or proud?

R. I’m not afraid. Great pride. This is the club of my life that I have seen grow. I have been training since I was 15 years old, before with young guys, now with the best players in the world. Even though I’m only 30 years old, I’ve been training for many years and it’s nice for people to know that I’ve always wanted to be a trainer.

TO. I already had close relationships with the players. How to mark the limit?

R. This is a natural relationship. They know that now I make decisions. Now I have more responsibilities: before I devoted myself exclusively to what excites me – analysis and training, and now I manage all departments of the team. I’m here to make sure they give their best every day, and if that happens, they’ll have the opportunity to play. But no one is guaranteed a position.

TO. Who did you tell first?

R. My parents, obviously.

TO. What did they tell you?

R. Well, let’s see… (laughs). First: “Are you sure? But when will it come out? But then there is a lot of worry. All my life I went to the Camp Nou and watched my father and brother play.

TO. It comes from family.

R. My father is 75 years old and still plays football. Since childhood, he always played on the courts of the University of Barcelona with his group of architects. Every Saturday I went to watch their games. Then I played all my life until I was 21 years old.

TO. Why did you leave him?

R. I liked being a coach more than a player. The ball is controlled by the foot and this creates a lot of inaccuracy and I enjoy trying to understand the game and football in its chaos and uncertainty. I enjoy directing, analyzing and being creative with football ideas because I try to bring coherence to situations. Since childhood, I always liked acting more than anything else, perhaps because I thought I would be better at it (laughs).

TO. He likes to go into detail.

R. We work on position-specific needs and other player-specific needs through training and videos. Keira Walsh is not the same as Patri Guijarro, although they are midfielders, they are two different players. I like to go into detail because I think enough and try to get to the bottom with a scalpel to understand why.

TO. Also in life?

R. What I like.

TO. For example.

R. My father is an architect, my mother is a landscape designer, and my brother is a film director. I have always been attached to the artistic world, to creativity, and this makes me see things in detail. I love music very much, especially rap, all my life, cinema, without being an expert, and gastronomy, although I do not have the talent to be a connoisseur. kitchenettes. My family and I always went to see architecture.

TO. He is a big fan of K. Tangana.

R. I’ll get wet: for me he is the best Spanish artist of recent years. I listened to him from the very beginning and grew along with his creative process of maturation. It made me wonder what he does with each album, and eventually I figured it out. Thanks to him and other artists, urban music entered the national stage. He turned a vacant lot into a garden.

TO. What is Pere Romeu’s football like?

R. Dominate possession, try to prevent the opposing team from counter-attacking us, create plenty of scoring opportunities and be aggressive in both attack and defense to ensure we concede as few goals as possible.

TO. How to motivate a team that has won everything?

R. We try to improve every day. Know what you do well so you can keep doing it, and what you don’t do so well so you can improve. This is the key to collective success. My goal is for this team to play better every day. So far, things have been going very well, and for me, having been inside, it was absolute happiness. But in football and in life you can always improve. Although we don’t have small tasks, because if we have them, the players only focus on that. The other day, naturally during training and as a joke, we said that if we score a goal from a corner, the assistant coach will bring breakfast. But it was something anecdotal.

TO. The first opponent in the Champions League will be Manchester City.

R. This will be a good match between two teams who want to dominate possession. We will have to present our best version, but we will come well prepared.

TO. Are all four titles possible?

R. Yes. Let’s go for it.

TO. What will success and failure mean this season?

R. Life is never successful enough or unsuccessful enough. I am not a supporter of extremes, life is something more. The success is that my team is recognized in every game of the year.