Isco reveals why he dropped down Real Madrid's pecking order

There has been a lot of talk about what Isco could have been and was not. The Andalusian midfielder showed a promising future with his home team that found success in his first few years with Real Madrid, but which was cut short as the seasons went by. As the seasons rolled on, no one was quite sure what was going on. In an interview on the 'Universo Valdano' programme on 'Movistar', he opened up and admitted that it was all his fault.

"I don't really know what happened. Nobody was clear with me, maybe not... I just don't.... With Solari, I played a Copa del Rey match and then some minutes, 10 minutes... and then I didn't know how I was, if I was well, if I was bad and, well, I fell apart," he began, in the preview provided by the platform, before Jorge Valdano asked him what part of his own responsibility there is in it and how therapy helped him.

"Yes, very much so. In the end, that's what time gives you, you know? At that moment, you're pissed off with everybody, everything seems wrong to you.... Time and therapy? Yes, yes, of course. Well, when you're in that situation, nothing is your fault, 'this is such a thing', you're constantly blaming others and time gives you the perspective of what did you do to change, why didn't you take a step further, why didn't you fight harder?" the former Madrid man revealed.

"Now, I recognise that, at that moment, I lost a bit of my desire to prove myself, to play, to take the place of a team-mate and it was something I had done before; then, I fell a bit down and I didn't have the mental strength to reverse the situation that I had reversed on other occasions. I'm the one who regrets it the most and of course, I say it now that a lot of time has passed, now that I'm enjoying football again like a little boy, but, as I said, at that time, I was fighting with everyone, I blamed everyone and I felt like a victim when I wasn't", he added.

 

January 23, 2024