“I think Messi feels at home in Miami and gets along very well with Maluma and Bekham,” says the center back.
“I played golf with Ansu; I know him very well and I am convinced that he will be the same as before,” he says.
Marc Astur (Sant Cugat del Vallès, 2000) is not an ordinary footballer. At only 23 years old and after training at La Masia, he has become accustomed to living with his suitcases packed. Sabadell, El Prat, Croatian HNK Šibenik and Inter Miami, in recent years, have had him in their ranks. Astur is one of those soccer players who have known how to adapt to new times: he masters the codes of social networks and is not limited to the ball: he is interested in fashion, wants to train as an actor and knows great celebrities from Miami.
What memory do you have of your beginnings at Barça?
I remember that I left Barça when I started ESO and I went to Sabadell. I would have been 10-11 years old. Playing for Barça was the best but I spent almost all of my youth at Sabadell. I was there for seven years until I went up to the first team as a youth player and we went up to the Second Division. And from there I went to El Prat and then the opportunity came to Inter Miami in 2021. This is my third year.
Barça is a special club with its training, it gives you very specific tools for a style that is not always what they ask of you abroad, what impact did it have on your career?
I think that from the start at Barça you find a different learning experience than the rest of the clubs. Each one can assess whether it is better or worse but I do remember that it was a different training. For everything that is the style and what they try to instill in you: especially the release of the ball; From a very young age they teach you that. They train you to one day be a Barça first team player but not so much for other clubs. This formation is what marked me the most and what I still have today in my way of playing: that way of getting the ball: an elegant start, not wanting to get the ball out of your feet quickly and then I’m left with the professionalism of the house coaches.
In most of the lower league games the team is so superior and has the ball so much that the defender’s job is more to accompany the possession game than to defend. Is that a difficulty when you leave the club and have to adjust to another football? ?
Completely. Having immersed myself in all these concepts of Barça, then when I go to divisions like the second B with Sabadell or El Prat, it really shows. Because there is less ball delivery, it is played more directly, there are more individual duels and the game is not as elaborate. And that is very noticeable. Maybe in First Division it is not so noticeable, but in those divisions it is. I was missing more the aggressive part and I had to train more in this aspect.
Did you meet any player at La Masia who is now with Xavi?
No, but I did hang out when I was in the Sabadell youth team with some players like Ansu Fati, Alejandro Marqués or Konrad de la Fuente. With Bucket too… But maybe I don’t have that much of a relationship with him. But I did hang out a lot with them and Xavi Simons’ brother.
How have you seen everything that has happened with Ansu?
Ansu is a very good friend and a great person. Sometimes we would get together to play golf and well, I congratulated him. He’s going to be fine: he’s going to have minutes and this is football. The constant movement. He has the Barça heart and knowing what Ansu is like, he will be back at his best and will score goals as always and be the player he was before the injuries.
Marc Astur, during a training session at Inter Miami
| INTER MIAMI
Returning to your career, how has your time at Inter Miami been?
I arrived in 2021 when the club was very new and very familiar. We all got together, Beckham himself. David was always in training, his son was on my team & mldr ;. I arrive and I am with the second team, then in 2022 I am in the first team dynamic and I agree with Gonzalo Higuaín. There were high-level players, Matuidi was also there. Here it is different than in Spain: the second team and the first are much closer. In England something more similar happens: first team players can play in the reserve team to gain rhythm after an injury. Here everything is much more open, so I was combining the two, now I’ll go back there and we’ll see what happens [ahorma mismo no tiene contrato pero sigue entrenando con ellos]. Looking forward to meeting Leo, who I already know, and Busi, who is also in the area where we live.
On your social networks you appear next to Messi in Paris before he arrived in Miami, how did you meet him?
We are both ambassadors for the Hard Rock Cafe. That’s why we were together for a few days in Paris and now in Miami. We talk about many things, but they are part of the private sphere.
How are you seeing it?
Man, he’s not doing bad so far. [risas]. Yes, at some point I thought that sooner or later I could end up here because in Miami it must be like home. There are many Argentines, the coach of the second team is Gonzalo’s brother [Higuaín].. And on a daily basis here you have a tropical climate. I am delighted here.
Where are you living?
I am living in the Porche design tower, which is a famous building where celebrities like Karol G or Maluma live, and we get along very well.
What is this building like?
It is a very private building: you can put your car in the elevator and leave it in your apartment. You can park your car in the dining room, you know? It is a building very designed for celebrities. You enter as if you were entering a parking lot and below there are like four different elevators. Each apartment is assigned its elevator and then you take the car up to your house. And to leave the building, the same.
Do you live with these celebrities?
With Maluma we are very friends. He really likes football and he knew that he was at Inter. Sometimes we go to play soccer on the beach and we meet in the gym because it is communal. And I can tell you that Maluma has the level to play soccer. He could play. We had a good time. And Messi himself and Busquets are also very friends with Maluma. We were also with Bekham. In fact, I’ll tell you another anecdote: I get along very well with the Beckham family because since I was there from the beginning and I was the first Spaniard to be at Inter Miami, when I arrived they shouted at me: ‘the Spanish, the Spanish’…. He was the only one and that made him very happy because he played for Madrid. And one day he came to me, we were talking, he introduced me to his family: Victoria, his son Romeo who played with me, his daughter & mldr; and we agree a lot. It’s all like a circle, because he also hangs out with Maluma and Messi.
Marc with Leo
| INSTAGRAM
Beckham and Messi seem shy at first, are they really like that?
In the end public image is one thing but sometimes it is just that: public image. Leo is a person of ten, always with a smile. And the same with Beckham: I don’t see him as shy: he is a very humble person with a lovely family.
Which player has had the most impact on you in training, have you ever had to score against Messi?
Not yet. But I do remember in the first training sessions at Inter Miami that you quickly saw Higuaín and could play a more combinative game. You noticed the European feeling of: ‘give me the ball back and I’ll give it back to you’. To play at the first touch. A not so physical game, more technical, of understanding the game. You did notice that: it reminded me more of Barça and Sabadell. What surprised me most is that the players in the United States were not as inferior as they say. And physically I see them as strong.
Which MLS player do you see with the possibility of being important in Europe?
There are many. For example, an Argentine who is at Inter called Benjamín Cremaschi and is starting.
Your profile on the networks is reminiscent of influencers. Have you considered dedicating yourself to just that and leaving football?
Look, the topic of influencer… I don’t consider myself an influencer nor do I want to be one, but I am interested in the topic of fashion and brands. I have not considered leaving football because of this, but I have had opportunities in the world of acting like on Netflix and I am definitely keeping an eye on this and you will surely be able to see me. I am interested in the world of cinema and I have studied acting in my free time. Football has marked my life, but it is not the only thing that interests me.