Willy declares his madridismo after leaving Barça: I'll always back Madrid | OneFootball

The center, a former Barça player, expresses his "gratitude" to Real Madrid now wearing the Unicaja badge, as they face the Whites on Sunday in the Liga Endesa opener

Unicaja of Málaga held its "media day", an opportunity for the media to interview its players with the start of the league on the horizon. On Sunday at 7 p.m., the Málaga side will face Real Madrid in the Liga Endesa opener with many new faces, including Willy Hernangómez.

His start on the Costa del Sol has been encouraging based on what he has shown on the court, but it has produced even more headlines off it. The big man, a youth product of Real Madrid, when asked about the reception he expected from the Madrid faithful, admitted his love for Los Blancos before facing them and just after leaving Barcelona. "I don't think Madrid fans have it in for me. I’m grateful to Real Madrid and its fans. It’s the club where I grew up and developed. I’m a Madrid fan, so I’ll always be supporting them. Now the perspective is different, I’m coming from Barça and I’m at Unicaja, but the rivalry isn’t as intense as it used to be."

The Madrid-born player left Barça this summer through the back door, after a spell that was disappointing both in terms of titles and performances. It was believed that his gross contract worth €12.5 million over 3 seasons would bring out the best version of a player who had just won EuroBasket MVP and was expected to dominate in Europe. His numbers at Barcelona declined over his 3 seasons, and already last season the club looked for a way out to reduce the wage bill. The big man averaged 5.7 points last season in the EuroLeague, while in the ACB he raised his scoring average from 8.1 to 8.7, figures that still do not match such a high-level European contract.

Now Hernangómez is starting from scratch in Málaga. In the Costa del Sol Tournament he posted strong numbers against Tenerife: 16 points, 11 rebounds and a 32 efficiency rating, followed by another "double-double" of 21 points and 10 rebounds against Obradoiro. His strong preseason has given the people of Málaga reason to believe he still has basketball left in the tank, and he only wants to "help the club, because they’re helping me too".

The first official game for Málaga’s revamped "roster" will be against Real Madrid, with a recent precedent in the Costa del Sol Tournament itself, where Pedro Martínez’s team steamrolled Unicaja (74-113), but Willy believes they have improved since that game, have acknowledged their mistakes and can grow from them. "We’re going in with maximum ambition. We’ve worked a lot more and we know what things we can do better. It will be a different game and we’re going to give it everything. Hopefully we can compete with them and try to get a wonderful win."

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.