"Until I go on loan to Girona, I don't believe I can make a living from football"

In the run-up to the 29th round of the Primera Division and after the international break, Alex Baena gave an interview in ‘El Club del Deportista’ and talked about his beginnings in this complicated world, where not everything falls from the sky and it takes a lot of effort and sacrifice.

"I have lost most of my childhood and adolescence with so many trips away from home. In the end, you see friends who do what they do at a certain age and you can't do it because the next day you have a match or you have to travel. These are things that have to be sacrificed. What I've suffered the most has been having my family far away", he began.

"Until I go to Girona on loan, I don't believe that I can make a living from football, whether it's in Segunda Division or Primera Division. When we won the Europa League, I already had that feeling that, the following year, when the team was in the Champions League, maybe I was going to have to leave or that I was going to have very few minutes. We spoke to him and he told us that the best thing to do was to leave to get some minutes, and the truth is that it went very well."

One of the topics discussed was his incident with Fede Valverde: "There was a moment when I had a problem and I had a very bad time. At that time I didn't know how to handle anything. Having a lot of talks with the psychologist helped me a lot. So did the family. Now I manage it in a different way."

"I think the Olympic Games are more special because in the end I think there were two Spanish teams that made it. But since you were a kid you dream more about a European Championship and a World Cup because you see your idols lifting those cups. Winning the European Championship is indescribable. It's very nice," he said about his latest titles.

Finally, Baena considered that he can still give much more: "I think I can improve a lot and be more consistent. That's my challenge."