As we close the final international window of 2021 and return to domestic competition, Mikel Merino reflects on quite the year, calm trying to take it all in. It ‘s been, a year full of achievements for the 25-year-old spanish midfielder. His team Real Sociedad lead La Liga and even though there ‘s a farseeing means to go, this fantastic Basque club feels confident about the journey. Merino, is cautiously affirmative about the job at hand. For now, everything is about the show. “ right now we are merely thinking about the consequence, ” says Merino, speaking to ¡Qué Golazo ! and CBS Sports. ‘Thinking about winning La Liga is just not naturalistic correct now for us. We precisely want to keep doing our job, ferment hard, improve and focus on what we want to do better. Keep winning. We feel confident. We feel mentally and physically solid, but this tournament is so hanker that you can not have a moment to rest throughout the temper, because you lose. We just have to think about where we want improvement … and then … we ‘ll talk again in a few months. ” We ‘ll return to La Real, but an accomplishment he can decidedly celebrate is his most holocene venture with the spanish national team, helping La Roja reach the World Cup after an about arrant qualifying campaign under Luis Enrique. “ I ‘m very glad and very proud, particularly as we know how much it takes to get to a World Cup, as we can see from all the nations who are on the outside looking in, and for how long we have fought for it, super happy for the whole group, and happy for the national team and everyone who have continued to support us throughout, ” says Merino. “ now, I am precisely so arouse to go and see what we can do. ”

Playing for the national team is an honor for any actor but when you ‘re a spanish midfielder. In Spain, the midfielder is everything. It ‘s where Picasso paints Guernica or Federico Garcia Lorca writes Blood Wedding. It ‘s where artwork is created. This is the state of Andres Iniesta, Xavi Hernandez, David Silva and La Real ‘s very own Xabi Alonso. When you ‘re a midfielder and you ‘re selected, specially under Luis Enrique, it ‘s a coronation and Merino never takes it for granted. So what ‘s the clandestine ? Why is this position thus cute in spanish football ? “ All these guys [ Iniesta, Xavi etc ] opened the way for us, ” says Merino. “ We watched them when we were little and they were our idols. Everybody wanted to play like Spain. Everyone wanted to be like these guys. The culture started to go that way, the spanish culture. even when you ‘re young they tell you, ‘keep the ball. The testis is gold. It ‘s so valuable. Keep it and play… ‘ and that ‘s the way we learned and the manner we grew up. So I think it ‘s good about the culture. You have to start unseasoned and have full trainers in the academy. They teach you the best way to play football and I think that ‘s the hidden. There ‘s no particular food or special drink to make us play the right way. It ‘s fair about starting young. ” youth is the blank canvas but experience is the paint and that ‘s Mikel Merino. At 25, he is not old by any means but when he sees Barcelona ‘s Gavi ( 17 ) or Pedri ( 18 ), he decidedly feel ancient .

“ I feel like I am ready to retire because all these kids are coming in and making me feel old ! I feel young but at the lapp meter I have the province to help them because I am one of the oldest so it has helped me as well, ” says Merino, who ‘s been separate of the national team setup throughout about his playing career. “ That ‘s why Gavi or Pedri or all these players are in the national team and showing the huge charge they have so youthful. But there is obviously a thing you can not teach, experience … ..I have many years left to go in my career but I have lived through a lot of things, different experiences in different countries and cultures, so I think I can use that and try to help my teammates that are younger than me, using that have. so for me, that ‘s my part. It ‘s my task. ” merino might be entirely 25, but his career speaks for person much older. He has worked under Thomas Tuchel in Borussia Dortmund ( “ … a time in my life where I was with my eyes unfold, my ears open, barely trying to adapt and have any short information to adapt to my game. Eager.. ” says Merino ) and Rafa Benitez with Newcastle United. In the Premier League, he learned how to be bad. “ I ‘d say that the league teaches you a batch. It ‘s something unlike than in every other country because of the pace, the volume and the battles, ” says Merino. “ They ‘re equitable something different. The atmosphere in every single sales talk. The fans go crazy and they make the game even rugged, so my time there was big. I was very happy at Newcastle. I was feeling very at home plate. So the league was great … .back in the Bundesliga, or in train, you do n’t feel that kind of potency with other players. But in the Premier League, it ‘s something crazy. The pace, the means they go on the deck. They tackle you … the animalism is huge and it ‘s amazing to live it once in a life. You have to experience it. I constantly speak nicely about the league because it ‘s something you have to live. It ‘s like a movie. So it taught me a lot. mighty now I am using it here in La Liga. I try to be physical and win a draw of balls. So I ‘m sure if someday I have the opportunity to go back I ‘ll be ready for it because I already know what that league is all about. ” Under Luis Enrique, he learns under another fabled midfielder. “ You have to pay care to the details that he wants to change from the way I play, but he is a passenger car with a big personality. He tells you precisely what he wants, ” he says .

now, he has La Real ‘s Imanol Alguacil, a man he sincerely admires. “ When you get to know him you can see he ‘s a truly, very good man, ” says Merino. “ not only in train, not alone as a professional but as a person, he tries to help you every single fourth dimension and he thinks about us the whole time. The unharmed fourth dimension worrying about how we are, how we can get better, not alone in football but besides in liveliness … But he ‘s besides a capital heading coach, he has a lot of qualities he has given us since the first sidereal day, the tools for us to be a effective team. And he ‘s always giving us the assurance to get good, so I think he ‘s the perfect bus for this club and he has actual Sociedad in his heart. There ‘s cipher like him for this problem. ” real Sociedad is a especial baseball club, from a especial region in Spain. It ‘s San Sebastian, Basque country. The football club lives within a city of pride, culture and a sense of belonging that can only be found among people who care about you. That ‘s real Sociedad. It ‘s special. From the academy to the senior team, it prioritizes values above football. Championships will come but respect for your surroundings must be ageless. “ When I came back here ( Spain ) from the Premier League, I found precisely what I wanted to find. I ‘m from Pamplona and this is a similar area, ” says Merino. “ It ‘s actually calm, the people are in truth nice, the food is amazing. The gastronomy is incredible, and that ‘s something I love. But it ‘s good the brain they have and the culture in the club. The manner they treat the youngsters, the way they put sol much importance on the young kids, for them to learn the correct way of playing football, ” says Merino.

“ not lone playing football but the justly way to grow up and have the values of a big person. That ‘s the chief thing and that ‘s why so many players are coming to the first team very young and doing a great job and for us, who come from the outdoor, it ‘s so easy to adapt because everybody is so kind and then courteous that you precisely feel at home. ” The focus on youth that Merino talks about can be seen throughout the police squad. The average old age is 26 and only three members of the squad are above 30. The captain, Mikel Oyarzabal, is 24. It ‘s not about age here. It ‘s about cognition. It ‘s besides about Basque pride. Winning the 2019-2020 Copa del Rey last class, for exemplar, against their fiercest equal Athletic Bilbao, was massive. “ They [ the fans ] want us to win those games more than any other. thus for us it was a huge, huge crippled, ” says Merino. “ We were under a lot of pressure. It was not only a title in the middle but a title against your biggest rivals so it was a very baffling situation and for us to have the guts to win the game and put our names in history is very huge for the team, for the club and for the stallion culture. So we ‘re in truth, in truth gallant and happy. ”

The final had to be delayed by a class due to the pandemic and the celebrations with fans even longer, but for Merino, the satisfaction of winning sweetened the temper for everyone. “ All the wait, all the expectations, when you last win, all that is clayey on you and then you feel release. ” Merino is an articulate loudspeaker. We could have done this interview in spanish but he chose English as he wants to keep better, but it ‘s very, very adept. He says he learned it while watching Suits ( Harvey is his favorite quality ) and playing in Newcastle. Yes, he ‘s happy he did n’t develop a Geordie stress. He is a deep thinker who cares about the game but most importantly, the people behind it. Every wonder is delivered with care. He has the skills to be a presenter or analyst but he calls it another world, he would n’t even know where to begin. There goes that modesty again. about every reception is a compliment about another teammate as opposed to himself thus I have to push him to be selfish. But much like his game, he ‘s not one to take the limelight all for himself .

pass and move. Help the team. Having Xabi Alonso in the clubhouse is an honor he says. The early midfield asterisk continues to learn his trade wind, managing real number Sociedad B and Merino respects the meticulous path taken by one of Spain ‘s greatest players. “ You alone have to see the clock time he was playing to know he has a identical undimmed mind, ” says Merino. ” finally, we return to Real Sociedad and their championship ambitions. How far can this english go ? Can they dethrone the trifecta of Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid ? Can they besides make a deeper run in the Europa League this year ?

“ I think we have to be base …, ” says Merino. “ Try and keep pace in the Europa League, try to possibly take a footprint forward and play Champions League following class but obviously we have to be humble and put our focus on the future game, precisely game by game, or day by day, trying to improve, trying to get better. I think that ‘s gon na be the correct way to achieve our goals, but mighty now we have to think about this moment. ”

There was much, much more to talk about with Mikel Merino. From his views on american talent in Europe and Spain to his teammate, the illustrious unseasoned swedish hitter Alexander Isak, so I implore you to watch the whole interview on ¡Qué Golazo ! ‘s YouTube duct .