Pepe, The legendary defender who passed through the ranks of the Real Madrid, He reviewed his career in an interview with the newspaper Expresso that is published this Friday in Portugal and which tells the best anecdotes he lived with the elastic of the meringue set.
Pepe says that the Madrid fans are not so emotional
He almost arrives at the Esportiu de la Coruña
” Ufff … My signing for Real Madrid? Everything was very fast, but in fact I could have gone earlier, but not to Madrid, but to Deportivo La Coruña, at the end of my first year in Porto. President Pinto da Costa told me, “No, no, no, no way, you will stay here longer at FC Porto.” But the press kept writing some things and Jorge Mendes told me others: “There is a club in England interested, there is this other …”. And the more he played, the more clubs appeared. In the third year I renewed for five and at the end of the season came the proposal from Real Madrid, although I had other opportunities. And I was really looking forward to Real Madrid, even though a lot of people told me I was crazy to go there, because it was very difficult and, most of all, because it was a central cemetery. At the time, Madrid had a hole to fill from Ferro’s exit and I wanted that challenge. They still tried to get me to the other side, but I was always very direct. ”
His signing for Real Madrid
” It costs 30 million euros and coming from a championship like the Portuguese … The Spanish press is much tougher than the Portuguese, I guarantee that (laughs). My signing was like this: I left the Porto concentration, I bought clothes at the airport and when I got to T-4 from Madrid I had a lot of journalists waiting for me. Jorge Mendes warned me: ‘When you walk out the door, you had a lot of people by your side, give me your bag’. I gave Jorge my bag, which I remember was a shoulder bag, I opened the door and the reporters asked me the first question: ‘Pepe, Pepe, do you carry the 30 million in this bag?’. I didn’t know what to say, I felt a small push on my back and Jorge say, ‘Come on, come on, don’t talk’. The 30 million? What do you think? He could not speak Spanish. Then, yes, it was difficult. ”
The scolding that Cannavaro gave him
” Well, now I can tell you that, because it’s been many years and we’re friends: it happened with Cannavaro. In preseason I hardly spoke, I just trained and watched, because I’m very observant. That was work and more work. Then we went on the plane to Austria and it happened that he sat in front of me. I caught him reading a magazine and when I realized it was over and the plane was going to land, I got up brave and said, ‘Cannavaro, Cannavaro (quietly), they can give me the magazine ? ‘. And Cannavaro looked back and said to me, ‘Cannavaro? My name is Fabio ‘. And he turned his back on me. I didn’t know what to say. They were seconds, maybe minutes, but that seemed like an eternity, until the magazine gave me ”.
His debut with Real Madrid
“My first game was against Atlético de Madrid. I came from a tactically organized club, where if the ball comes out on the left side, you have to press it there, if the ball comes out on the right side, pressures like this, things like that, basic, and what I found in Madrid was chaos, in the 30th minute the game breaks down and we get one on one and we run from behind. I turn to Fabio and he I say, ‘Fabio!’ Fabio! Cover, cover! ‘. And he says to me:’ no, no, this is not done here. Each one by his side ‘. , on the defensive pivot above.and I thought, ‘what? 50 yards on my back and I’m here to do a one on one?’ Then I thought that calm, that I would do well. Whoever played for Real Madrid, at that moment had to listen to the fans shouting goals, because the 2-0 was not enough, they had to score four, five, six goals and only the central defenders are left behind. the goalkeeper ”.
Pepe’s father’s harsh comment against Madrid
Squares and language
” When I arrived in Madrid, Iker said to me: ‘So, do you already speak Spanish?’ And I: ‘No, no’. ‘Well look, you have to talk.’ A few years later, when I came back to Porto and picked him up here, I also said to him, ‘So, do you already know Portuguese?’. And he said, ‘Oh, a little, a little.’ And me: ‘That’s not enough.’ Iker is a great guy (laughs) ”.
The dressing room egos
” It wasn’t an easy wardrobe. There, they are all high-level selection players. And so they are all important, not just those eleven headlines. But it’s a brutal pressure: if you win, things go well, you stay on the team and at the club; if you don’t win you leave, another player comes in your place and ready. If you don’t have performance, you have others waiting for them to want your place to tighten; so you always have to be at a high level ”.
Portuguese in Madrid
” Mourinho came to Real Madrid to win La Desena, because that was the only thing that mattered. The club only wanted the Champions League, the championship was secondary. Mourinho was very excited, because he had won the Champions League with Inter Milan at the Bernabeu, and also a lot of organization and we ended up having three good years with him: we won a League, a Copa del Rey, but we didn’t to be able to win the Champions ”.
The day Pepe paid the salary of the Besiktas planter
He won three Champions with Madrid
” What could I, a boy who slept with my mother until I was 18, win three Champions (laughs)? Look, I never imagined it, it’s true. I felt like I could get far, but it never crossed my mind to win three. But I’ve never been a person thinking about their future either. I think the more you imagine, the more you forget the present ”.
His relationship with Ancelotti
” When Ancelotti signed, I was on vacation and I wasn’t doing very well. There was this confusion, there was speculation in the Spanish press about my situation. And then Ancelotti called me and he was very honest: ‘Look, Pep, I have Sergio Ramos, I have Varane, who has a lot of quality, and I have you. I’m telling you, you’re not the first choice. ‘ I replied, ‘It’s all right, Mister, but what do you want? Do you want me to leave? ‘. And he said, ‘No, no, no, I want you to stay, but I also want you to know that you’re not my first choice.’ I said, ‘I agree. But it will give me a chance to fight for my place, on equal terms? No preferences? ”Ancelotti replied,“ This is exactly what I was hoping to hear. ”So if this gentleman is as honest in the future as he is now, I will stay and fight for any opportunity presented itself. The master ended like this: ‘We will be champions’. And we went. ”