The ‘coach’ who lit up Morata: “He is a great person living his best moment”

“There is a lot of talk about his extraordinary moment as a footballer. But you have to value who you are as a person.“, he claims to be a professional who speaks with the sensitivity and depth that his experiences have given him. Carmona retired in September 2022, at the age of 30, after an eventful career. Besides La Masia, he was also at Milan, Real Zaragoza, Girona, Espanyol, B, Albacete , CD Lugo at clubs in India or at L’Hospitalet.He was also European under-17 champion in 2008.

Lamine Yamal and care for young people

Injuries and fatigue caused him to leave the field. “I was grieving. I was going through a difficult time professionally and personally before I retired. From reaching the top to playing on very different Second B venues. He’s not that professional. It’s all a matter of adaptation. ‘The other football’ has its own appeal, but I couldn’t stomach it,” Carmona admits.

He made peace with the ball thanks to ‘coaching’, which gave him his education and made him interested in a sport that never worried him beyond his routine as a player, even though he had been playing this sport since he could remember. “I realized that I had experienced everything from being the favorite of the Barça youth team to the pain of relegation. There are injuries and many things that affect a player’s mentality” he recalls.

Carmona identified a flaw in the professional system, which he addressed first through personal study and then through study. “We didn’t have the tools for the most important thing, What is channeling emotions naturally?“It describes someone who is already active and starting to build the future he lives today. In addition to Álvaro Morata, he worked both physically and remotely. Sergi Roberto, Marc Muniesa (former teammates at Barça), Arthur Melo or Ferreira Carrasco.

But he also accompanied promising football players in training from one day to the next, as in the case of Lamine Yamal. “Fortunately or unfortunately, we are in a crazy world. Thanks to this vortex, players like Lamine emerge. I hope everything goes well, but we have to be careful. I think Xavi is giving him a good dose.” Although it is already clear that he will leave his mark on an era, we should not forget that he is 16 years old. “This won’t be the first thing we kill, and it won’t be the last,” Carmona said of a player who attended training camp unwell after being substituted at Granada.

Morata’s lesson in facing the World Cup

This is one of the many cases analyzed by the ‘sports coach’; A profession he discovered one day when a light bulb went off for him. “My first big thought about this comes at a summer market. It’s a place where you wait for the opportunity. I start to see myself in different scenarios. But on the other hand, I imagine myself helping the actors. It gave me goosebumps.” I feel very satisfied today.” reflects a footballer who is on his mind – because he still thinks so Álvaro Morata cites one of the many cases of positive evolution.

The national team forward said this after scoring against Germany on the second day of the World Cup group stage. A goal coming off the bench, the double value this implies. “I prepared this with my coach Adri (Carmona). We visualize two games: starter or backup, with everything that entails. From goal celebrations to the way you support your teammates if you’re a substitute. If you have experienced it before, it is easier to manage,” Morata said in an interview with ‘Cadena Cope’.

“When you know how hard you’ve worked in a professional relationship that becomes personal and you see how the player turns the game around… It gives you satisfaction and pride! It looks like you’re playing!” I always say: I didn’t watch football. For me, a little training and analysis of the opponent was enough. Now I ‘eat’ games from everywhere, because I want to,” explains Carmona about the exchange of experiences his new role provokes.

The value of wearing a jersey and being a national team captain

It is a complex profession where each profile has its own characteristics depending on position, age, career… Although there are common points, public image management or criticism pressure. In the case of Morata, specific work allowed him to overcome labels that implied his aimlessness or poor position. To do this, he admitted, he used the following method recommended to him by Carmona: “Go to your children’s classroom and stay there for 20 minutes. Let them ask you all kinds of questions. Remember their faces when they insult you and that they are on the same level and importance as those children.”

‘Coach’ and football player come together for such solutions. Sometimes even the session that Carmona considers the most important is not the key to performance. This is a free system of mutual teachings that results in symbiosis with Morata. “He’s made tremendous progress. So he’s reaching his peak age. Now they’re paying more attention to him because of his scoring progress. Although he always put the collective good ahead of the individual. His career speaks for itself. The expert claims to have a prism of continuous development.

“The issue of captaincy and stripe was the result of growth. If you are not prepared, you will not accept this role. The most amazing thing is that he always leads by example. He looks after the young people. “He is generous,” Carmona emphasizes. This can easily be confirmed at any national team concentration, where the Atlético player stops to greet all the media and acts considerate to his teammates. From the struggle to his shyness he does it, but with training and respect earned.

“A life seven times the life of a normal person”

Morata took it upon himself to read the statement on the Rubiales case from his new status. A critical moment when he gave his voice and face, watched by thousands of eyes. “If everyone works, there will come a time. Just as I think numbers are the beginning of everything, they have always been there. Álvaro never stopped being a goalscorer, even though he was in very difficult away games like Real Madrid, Chelsea, Juventus… Always with great players. Being the marksman of those flags is a different movie every Sunday. “You can’t score in that game because you had 20 goals,” Carmona concludes.

His work, as well as coaching, made it possible to humanize football players. Both with his own life journey, which he confesses, and with the attitudes of the professionals whom he consulted and enriched. “Valdano has a saying: ‘He who knows only one thing knows nothing.’ Therefore, it is important to achieve perfection with balance. Sometimes we forget that football players are normal people. “With his fears, limitations, beliefs… You have to learn to ask for and receive this help,” says the ‘coach’ who turned on Morata’s light to accompany him. “In a life like the rest of your friends, seven times that of a normal person”.