The current Villarreal player said that “I felt like I wanted to leave, we reached an agreement with the club and we fixed it, we finished well”
The under-21 international revealed that “I was going to go to the Premier League (Leeds), but I didn’t even think about it when Villarreal came after me”
Ilias Akhomach left FC Barcelona this summer to sign for Villarreal. A decision that will mark his career andthat he took in agreement with Barça, as explained in an interview with Releveo. Ilias has already had a leading role in the groguet first team and is an under-21 international.
The forward said that he will always feel “grateful to Barça for everything it has given me. If I am here it is thanks to me, but also to them. I don’t have any complaints towards Barça. These are decisions that have to be made… The footballer’s career is very long. In the last year in the reserve team, I felt something inside me that told me: TI have to get out of here, because I have all the qualities to be able to explode on another team“.
Ilias clarified that his desire to go out did not come “from the lack of opportunities, because also I was in the first team for a while (he debuted with Xavi in 2021), but I felt like I wanted to leave. We reached an agreement with the club and we fixed it. On both sides we finished well, and that is the most important thing. Going wrong would not have been positive. “I have always had enormous respect and affection for the institution.”
Your child’s tears
The footballer also spoke of a year in which He had to leave Barça during his training and signed for Nàstic de Manresa: “They kicked me out between my last year of junior year and my first year of childhood, and I had a pretty bad time. It was a decision that I didn’t expect, I was little, I didn’t make it… It was one of my hardest moments. I’m not going to do it never forget. I remember, when I was returning from the taxi that day, a call from my father: ‘Hey, next year you’re not going to continue.’ I started crying in the taxi, I didn’t expect it“.
Ilias turned the situation around and “Four months later I returned to Barça again. I didn’t think about it: I wanted to return. This year, when I left Barcelona again, it was also hard. I have many teammates and people in the club with whom I have a great relationship. It’s difficult, but it’s a decision I had to make. We are getting older and we have to make decisions. I think it is the correct one. Who knows, in a few years, what may happen. “I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but right now I’m very happy at Villarreal.”
He ruled out Leeds
The forward was on the verge of signing for Leeds United, but the call from Villarreal changed his plans. “I was going to go to the Premier. That’s the truth. But then I thought about it very carefully with my family, the sports director (Víctor Orta) left, there were many changes, Leeds went down to Second… Something was happening inside me that, when my family told me about it, I don’t know… There was something I didn’t like about going to Leeds. It was a lot of change. “I said hold on.”
That’s when he received a call that changed his point of view: “Villarreal saw that I wasn’t making up my mind and went ahead. I didn’t even think about it, especially when I saw the sporting progression they wanted for me.. That’s what she looked at; money is not important right now. I wanted to go somewhere to play, to be in a good league, and on top of that I’m next to Barcelona. My representative did everything possible and Barça behaved incredibly. “I’m very glad I made that decision.”