BarcelonaA few minutes after making a cassock that put the Camp Nou on its feet, Pedri explained on the grass in front of the Movistar cameras that he was “shit” in case he lost the ball in that action. “That’s how he is, he just played a game and, in front of the press, with the pulsations still revolutionized, what comes out of him is to be humble and not to brag,” a person very close to the footballer told ARA. The naturalness of the Canarian midfielder contrasts with the praise and awards he has won at just 19 years old. Minutes later, Xavi Hernández would give a press conference to his footballer: “Pedri is the best pure talent in the world. He reminds me a lot of Iniesta”. The football comparison between the Tegueste player and the La Mancha player is recurring. In the summer, during the European Championship, in which Pedri was chosen by UEFA as the best young player in the competition, Luis Enrique also praised: “What Pedri has done in this European Championship he had not seen to make any 18-year-old player in any other competition, be it World, European, Olympic Games … How he interprets the game, how he occupies the spaces, the quality he has and the personality to play these types of matches … I I had never seen anything like it, not even with Iniesta. ”
But despite becoming a global phenomenon, Pedri continues to touch the ground and live the moment with naturalness. “He’s his own counterweight. He’s obviously grateful for the praise and the awards, but he doesn’t pay much attention to all of that. What he wants is to play football. He understood that he had to stop and recover, but he only thought about playing again, “he said. In the same way, they argue that the smoke has not risen in his head. “We don’t know what will happen in the future, but he is still the same. He continues with the same routines he had before he was so well known. Tenerife, at home “, recalls the same source, who highlights the values that his parents have instilled in him:” They are humble and hardworking people. Sometimes they come to see him play in Barcelona and then return to Tegueste. if they have to open their bar the next day. ” This is Pedri’s recipe, get away from paraphernalia and be surrounded by a healthy environment.
In fact, there’s one little fact this weekend that helps you understand how Pedri lives things, without believing himself on a pedestal. Despite playing a great game at the Camp Nou and seeing the fans cheering him on, he had the detail of congratulating his compatriot Yéremi Pino, who that same Sunday scored four goals against Espanyol. “Pedri had revolutionized the Camp Nou and he was the one who congratulated Yéremi. That also tells you a lot about how he is,” they explain from the footballer’s environment. In the locker room they are happy to have a player like the canary and see him as the natural leader of the midfield in the coming years. The magic of Pedri, who likes to joke with his classmates even though when he goes out in front of the cameras he has a serious and calm pose, is entrusted to the dressing room. In fact, the great arrival of the canary last season was one of the reasons that made the smile return to a Leo Messi who, in the summer of 2020, had sent a bureaufax to leave Barça. Now, together with Eric Garcia and the captain, Sergio Busquets, Pedri is one of the pillars in the adaptation of Ferran Torres to Barça, with whom he maintains a great friendship.
In the most strictly football facet, apart from taking a step forward in terms of looking at goal, the canary is a total footballer. “He controls the space-time facet perfectly. That is, he knows when he has time, when he has space, when he has to play first … Understanding the game. That’s what makes him the greatest. In addition, this talent that he has to get out of pressure situations, when he is surrounded by two or three players and you think he will lose the ball and not lose it … Well, that’s talent, and it also makes your play better: when the ball reaches Pedri, the play is better “, Xavi explained on Sunday with bright eyes. The canary is one of those footballers who plays and makes play, which makes the teammates around him better.
How the story began
The architect of the signing of Pedri was the former Barça technical secretary Ramon Planes. In the summer of 2019, he received a call from an old fatigue colleague, Rocco Maiorino, whom he knew from the Italian market – he had worked at Milan. Maiorino, then the sports director of Las Palmas, told him that they had “a youth” that could “interest” them before he started to excel in Segona. Planes reacted to his colleague’s insistence on going down to the Canary Islands to check that it was indeed worth the effort. The agreement was closed for five million fixed and one variable, as long as the footballer was transferred to Las Palmas for another year. Pedri was (and is) happy: he has been with Barça since he was a child.
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