From ACFC Academy to Pro Football: Exclusive Interview with a Rising Star in Spain

Interview courtesy of Héctor Espín and Erik Sole, original interview in Spanish can be found on https://newsletterhcf.substack.com/p/ganar-e-intentar-ascender-como-primeros?r=4dd9nc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

Question: Speaking of the season, you have already played two games. You lost in Elda and won against Carcaixent. What are your balance sheet of the season at the moment?

Answer: We started with a small stumble, but we are all clear about the goal we want to do. Winning and trying to rise first if you can is the most important thing we are all looking for. As young, most of us want that goal to go up.

There are several players who come up from the Juvenil A and there are also new ones who have arrived from other teams. How do you see the squad that has stayed this season?

The mix hasn't been bad. Having some of last year creates that little veteran, that respect for the greatest. It is what those of us who have just uploaded from youth or the youngest have to take into account and respect them. If they say something we have to do it as they say.

Fede played 21 games last season with Hércules B, scoring two goals (Photo: Espacio Hércules/E. Soler)

What do you think can be the strong point of the team?

Good question. Most of us are young. Against teams that are more veteran we will endure more the ninety minutes one hundred percent.

This season you have a new coach. Višnjić is no longer there and Roberto Campillo is there. How is it with him these weeks?

Very good, happy with the work he is doing. I don't take credit away from Josip either, but what he's doing very well is bringing the team together. A bond is created as friends, but when it comes to work you have to do it focused on it.

"Against teams that are more veterans we will endure more the ninety minutes one hundred percent"

Although you were young, you played a lot with the subsidiary in what was your first year in Hercules. Did you expect to have so much prominence in Hercules B being your first year and on top of that still young?

The truth is not, not at all. I didn't even expect to have gone to train with the first team last year and I ended the season training with them. I am very happy with Hercules' support.

What did you think of last season? Do you think there was a template to aspire to something else?

Last year the subsidiary just the previous season had been relegated and many players had left. We had a fairly short squad when it came to training, which was what sometimes hurt us to try to go back to the rise again.

You have commented that the goal is to move up, but do you have any goal for this year on an individual level?

I have a goal that I would like to do, hopefully it will come true, which is to be called up with the first team.

"I didn't expect to even have gone to train with the first team last year and I ended the season training with them"

Last season you went up to train with them, this year too. How was that experience of training with the first team?

Very good, you can see the change of rhythm a lot. It's another level, it's amazing to train on natural grass. It's very beautiful, an experience that takes away.

How does a Tenerife player like you get to Hercules?

It's a long story. In short, I started finishing my studies. I knew that studying was not going to be my thing, so my parents instead of investing that money in that invested in a soccer academy that was here, Alicante City, which was linked at that time with Steven Gerrard, an academy in Liverpool. Thanks to them I got some tests with Hercules, with Juvenil B, which was my second-year youth team. You can see that they needed a center, they liked me and they wanted me for the following year, which was the Juvenil A. When I came to do the tests they had decided that they wanted me.

Thanks to Steven Gerrard's academy you were playing in Dallas, in the United States, right?

Yes, a teammate and I were selected to go to Liverpool many times to train and from there we went to Dallas to play a tournament. We reached the semifinals, a shame, but the effort was noticeable a lot when playing five games in a week.

How was the passage through the academy?

Very good, very happy. It seems not, but between the Steven Gerrard academy that helped us a lot and the link I created with the Alicante City academy they have been very great and I never forget them.

Hercules B, with Fede Álvarez, will play its third league match this Saturday at 18:15 against Thader in the Sports City (Photo: Espacio Hércules/E. Soler)

For those of us who can't know exactly how the academies work, is there much difference in how you work in a youth team or in a subsidiary of a club like Hercules and an academy or is it similar?

It's quite different in some ways. More than anything in the academy they all live together as they are all from different countries. There are very few who are from Alicante. It becomes very professional. You have training in the morning, after lunch at that time, the gym... it's all by schedule. If you arrive late you are out or you have a small "fine". The same with meals. If you're not at lunchtime, the plate is not saved and that's it. You can tell the difference with being in Hercules, for example, that you don't have someone behind you to tell you that. They send you the message and you have to be at that time in training.

Talking a little more about you, if I'm not mistaken you started playing in the Armeñime. How many years were you and what memories do you have of that stage?

As a child I was in the Adeje, which was the town. There I stopped playing for a year. They called me from Armeñime, which at that time was Armepalmas because of an agreement that the club had with UD Las Palmas. They helped me a lot in many aspects. It has helped me to know how to take a step back to take two more forwards. I'm super grateful. In addition, the Armeñime as it is my parents' is now like my parents' is now. Having been there for so many years, I take him with me.

To finish, you like surfing. How are you doing and why surfing?

I really like sports in general. Surfing was for the year in which I stopped playing soccer because I didn't want to, which was when I was nine years old and I was a first-year fry, I talked to my parents and they put me in a surfing school. I've been surfing there all my life. It's a beautiful hobby that I have and it seems not, but it helps to have agility when playing soccer.

I imagine that when you can you keep surfing, or less?

Much less. When I go to Tenerife on vacation, maybe I can get into the water, but with great care more than anything because of the issue of injuries. By having a contract with Hercules, he has an internal regulation by which you cannot commit some things. Just like paddle tennis, which I also like. Here in Alicante or when I return to Tenerife I don't play to avoid injuries either.

"I've been surfing all my life. It's a beautiful hobby that I have and it seems not, but it helps to have agility when playing soccer"

Finally, any message for the fans?

That you can come to support us this Saturday that we have at 18:15 a game against Thader, which is the third game. These are three important points to put us up there in the table. Square with that it is just before the first team game, so it would be good if they came to support and then go all together to Rico Pérez to see if a double victory can be achieved.