-You are different from other teams because they represent and bear the name of a country. Effectively. We are neither a province nor a community. We represent a country and we notice it. Last year, at the beginning of the season, there were 150 or 200 people on the pitch and in the last games more than 2,000, including many young people, boys and girls. In the end, we all like football. It looks illusion and we have this responsibility.
– Are there still fringes to close? Really, except for the goal, we are still waiting to incorporate people. The truth is that I trust last year’s block, which knew how to perfectly develop the idea of the game and newcomers are integrating very well with this block. As I usually say, we are not looking for the best, but the most suitable.
-However, many of its players do not know the Second Division. We have to be prepared for everything new that we find. The jump in category poses more pressure, different scenarios, an audience that pushes their teams, and you have to know how to handle it. Our challenge is to always be able to find the solution, although the essence will be the same: to improve and adapt.
-You also debut in the category. I have been following the Second Division for years, since Quique Setién was at Lugo. It is a demanding category, where anyone can win. You can be five or six games up and lose to one of the bottom; and backwards. It is demanding and almost always decides in the end both above and below. The objective is none other than to consolidate Andorra in this category. This project is less than four years old but it is ambitious. Andorra is the only team in the category that has not played in the Second Division and it is necessary to consolidate, so that this step forward does not entail a step back.
-How do you face the challenge? I made the leap to elite football as Quique Setién’s second. I am optimistic, I believe in my work and in what surrounds me. I try to convey what I feel. The demand in the Second Division will be greater, but I am prepared for the challenge of improving.
-With Setién you arrived at Barça. That was a real opportunity. I was privileged and I always try to look for the positive side of things. It is true that we did not arrive at the best time nor did things turn out as we dreamed or thought. I learned a lot and would repeat it a thousand times. Every day that I got up and went to the Ciutat Esportiva I was the happiest in the world and I still have a very good relationship with the players with whom I shared a dressing room.
-Although what is said in the locker room stays, do you tell your players some experiences of your time at Barça? Last season after some hard defeat I told the kids ‘now it seems that the world is ending because we have lost 3-0. But with Barça we played the Champions League, we eliminated Napoli and then we went to play against Bayern and they beat us 2-8’.
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-Gerard Piqué was in that Barça dressing room, who is the owner of his club. Shortly after Luis Enrique arrived, he told us that Piqué was always there to add and help. I remember it on a Saturday, after training, in the gym or in the physio room, following the Andorra game on my mobile. Even then he had a great involvement and knew all the players and teams in the category. When we got here we started talking every week and whenever he could he came to watch the games. He is the engine of this project and he drives us all.
-You are also pushed by your father, Manu Sarabia, an Athletic legend. With my father I have a special treatment at the football level. Every time he sees a player stand out, he sends me the news and tells me ‘eye, this footballer can be interesting’. Much of what I know about football I owe to him and we both see this sport in a similar way. He will come to support us in our debut, already last year he came to Andorra many times to see us play.