Fiorentina's Borja Valero reflects on his youth career at Real Madrid, slamming the club for a lack of loyalty and comparing the experience to the X Factor.
Valero began his career at the Bernabeu, but took aim at the club’s youth policy, comparing it unfavourably to reality TV.
Fiorentina's Borja Valero reflects on his youth career at Real Madrid, slamming the club for a lack of loyalty and comparing the experience to the X Factor.
Valero began his career at the Bernabeu, but took aim at the club’s youth policy, comparing it unfavourably to reality TV.
“For me the game was fun but it stopped being like that when I joined Real Madrid’s training facility aged 11,” the former West Brom player told Marca.
“If I had not made it as a professional footballer then my analysis would have been far worse.
“As a youngster I lived with 300 other boys and 85 per cent of them did not make it. All of them sacrificed their adolescence for nothing. There was no loyalty.
“Those that were discarded you could see going off with their backpacks. It was stressful because it didn’t just depend on what you did on the pitch but on the opinion of the coaches.
“It was like the ‘X-Factor’, only there was no public there to save you.”
Valero also took aim at footballers who lose touch with everyday life, declaring that such players live ‘on another planet’, before professing his happiness at his low-key lifestyle in Florence.
“At Real they give you the best salary, a house, a car and a luxury watch. You live on another planet, at the top, but it’s not real football,” Valero explained.
“I had other offers [than Fiorentina] but none which gave me the opportunity to live in such a nice place [as Florence].
“At first when the game was over I just walked out of the stadium and nobody recognised me.
"Maybe people appreciate me because I do my shopping in the local supermarket, tidy my children’s room, or go round the city like any other tourist.
“I’m privileged. There are people working 12-hour days and we train for three.
“We must stop treating players like stars and take away this myth surrounding our work.”