Bernabé Barragán: «My spell at Atleti was one of my life's best» | OneFootball

Atlético Madrileño visit Juventud Torremolinos this Sunday at 12:00 at Pozuelo, in what will be matchday 35 of Group 2 of the Primera Federación. Both teams come into the game with different objectives: the Red-and-Whites are looking to stay at the top of the table, while the home side are eager to pick up 3 vital points in their fight to stay up. 

In the days leading up to the clash, we spoke with Bernabé Barragán, goalkeeper for the Andalusian side and former keeper for Atlético’s reserve team, as a preview of the match. 

You picked up an important point last weekend in Tarazona, with a clean sheet…

We managed to pick up a point away from home. It’s true that we were coming off a negative run, three consecutive wins and, well, in the end you have to stop the streak by picking up points. Maybe it feels like too little because it’s a direct rival but in the end, there at their place, I think the point and also the fact that we kept a clean sheet after coming off four defeats, you have to give that the importance it deserves. There are still four games left and we’ll see what the table brings us, but I think that in the end, a point against a direct rival is not really a bad result. 

In the space of a year, you went from playing in the Greek Super League to the Primera Federación. What motivated you to join the project?

As you say, I went to Greece last season, at the start of the campaign, and I started out playing everything there in the Greek Super League with clubs of great stature and history. It’s a very beautiful and exciting league, one that all the fans experience with a lot of passion, but in February I had the bad luck of suffering a serious injury. I tore my ACL and meniscus, and it’s an injury that requires between eight and ten months of recovery before you can get back with the group and try to regain your rhythm.

I got injured in February, and in June I came back to Spain because I terminated my contract with them,  and from June until Christmas I was with my rehab coach and my physio, recovering on my own at home. In January, the opportunity with Torremolinos came up, close to home, with the intention of being able to get my rhythm back and compete again. I also came here for that, to recover my sensations, to continue with the rehabilitation and to, if needed, help out whenever necessary, and that’s what I’ve been doing in these last few matches.

You’ve had minutes in the last 4 matchdays and you got your first clean sheet. In terms of confidence, how do you think that can influence the final stretch of the season?

It has to give us confidence and security. Three matchdays ago we changed coach, and we’re now working with a new coaching staff, so in the end that’s also an important factor. The fact that  the group has been working all season with one coach and then changing him in the final matchdays is not easy when it comes to understanding the idea; it’s not easy to adapt the new ideas the manager brings to those the team already has, which it has been carrying out all season, and I think that’s something that takes time.

We got our first point last week and it was against a direct rival, as we said before, keeping a clean sheet. It has to give us confidence to know that we’re doing things well and that, even though next Sunday we have a very, very difficult opponent, there are still four games left and I’m sure that if the team, keeps working this way and doing things like this, it will be very close to achieving the objective.

This weekend you face the team that was yours for 4 seasons. What memories do you have of that spell?

A lot of memories. It’s also true that I still have many friends there, although in the end, because of age, they had all moved on, they’re no longer with the reserve team and have progressed in their careers. But there are even some in the first team with whom I still have the memory of having shared very special moments. I was there for four years and in three of them I was the third goalkeeper for the first team. So in the end you go through a lot of situations with them.

From the current squad, today I remember Koke, Griezmann, even the same coaching staff who were there as well, and I remember it all very fondly, as one of the most beautiful stages I’ve experienced as a footballer.

What was day-to-day life with the first team like?

It was a very professional day-to-day. In the end, you realise that there are people who have been successful in football and have achieved so many good results for so many years because they are truly professional and every single day, in every sense, they approach their work at 200%. In training, the intensity, the attention to detail that the coach always demanded, the high standards, the fact of giving nothing away…

It’s no coincidence that someone is there, or that some players can perform at such a high level for so long, and if reaching the elite is difficult, staying for so long at the top of world football, as Atlético de Madrid are right now, both in terms of player quality and coaching staff, is no coincidence. There is a lot of work and discipline behind it which, in the world of football, sometimes not everyone has. 

Is Simeone as demanding as people say?

On a daily basis he pushes you as if you were competing, I mean, there isn’t a match, there isn’t a training session that’s a little more relaxed, a little calmer, where there isn’t something thought out with a view to being able to compete or prepare for the game ahead, and I think that’s also key and part of his success. From the moment we started pre-season, there at Los Ángeles de San Rafael, I remember that we did four training sessions in one day. Just imagine what that was like and the level of demand he had. It’s true they weren’t four two-hour training sessions each, but they were short periods at 200%.

As an anecdote, and to give you an idea of the level of demand there could be or still can be in one of their training sessions today, I remember that when I trained with them they would even bring up some reserve-team players just so that when we played small-sided games in training, they could help feed balls in so there was no recovery time. Not losing that intensity and having that level of demand and expectation in training ultimately gives you an extra edge when it comes to competing. They’re small details that perhaps other coaches or others in the coaching world might not consider important, but he cared a lot about even that, and in the end just look at the career he’s having, everything he’s achieving with the club. It’s incredible everything that’s behind it.

You shared a dressing room with players like the Hernández brothers, Monsalve, Iván Sánchez… could you tell they were going to go far in football?

The players who play for Atlético Madrileño, as we used to call it, are people selected from all over Spain. They have the best from Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia… They have the ability to choose qualities, so practically all the players we had in that reserve team had a lot of quality, just like the players we’ll be facing next Sunday do.

What do you need, apart from having that quality, in order to build a career, in this case, as you said, an important one or one that allows you to play for teams with weight at European level? Well, for the opportunity to come and for you to be ready for it. In this case, Lucas got that chance, and his brother Theo got it a little later, but the fact that only a few names have come to light and had that luck does not mean the others were not capable, or that technically they didn’t have the level to do it.

What I take from it is that Atlético de Madrid’s academy is one of the best in Spain and, of course, also at European level, and that it has been doing things very well. It’s clear to see, given that right now in the table they’re fighting for promotion. From this Sunday onwards I’ll wish them all the luck in the world, and hopefully they can achieve their objective.

Which player surprised you the most during your time at the club?

I didn’t expect Theo Hernández to have the career he’s had. It’s true that I saw him very young, and physically he looked like a powerhouse, but of course, in the end, the doors that football and life open for you as the years go by, you never really know what lies ahead. But I think his career has been exponential. Maybe everyone had their eyes on his brother, his brother Lucas, but perhaps that also gave him more strength to say  “yes, my brother is very good, but I’m very good too,” and that helped him and served as motivation to work and build the spectacular career he has had, with both brothers now playing for top teams on the world stage.

You spent 4 years with the reserve team, longer than usual at these clubs. Why?

When you’re somewhere you like, where they treat you well and you’re happy, I’ve always tried to stay a little longer before making the leap. In my case, I was there for four years, and in my last season with them I had the bad luck of injuring my shoulder. I had to undergo surgery, just like Oblak; it happened to me a few months later and I had to go under the knife. After that season, we decided to make the move to Tarragona, which was in the Second Division, and make the jump into professional football because there comes a point when you have to try to build a career. You can wait for opportunities in the reserve team, but you know the first-team players are very good, very competitive. If you see that that moment of opportunity, luck and timing doesn’t seem close, then you have to take another path.

In my case, I’m a goalkeeper, and since players registered with the reserve side can compete until the age of 25, you usually get two more years than outfield players [23], who do have to make their debut earlier. I think there at Madrileño you also have a player who, for example, couldn’t play for the first team with a reserve-team registration and who is doing very well this season –Arnau Ortiz– and, well, in the end those are decisions that get made.

What did you learn during your time as a rojiblanco?

Above all, from the first team, seeing the professionalism with which they approached daily life, seeing the seriousness and importance they gave to every detail. I think I shared a dressing room with people like Godín, Gabi, Koke… I could name so many players who were very important, but who also marked a before and after in what Atleti is, not just as a club but as a club identity. That is achieved through a lot of daily work. I tried to soak up all those good habits they showed every day, and I think that’s what has helped me most.

Beyond competing, beyond perhaps technically improving some things or others by working so much with both Oblak and Moyá since I shared a lot of training sessions with them, what I take most is the day-to-day and the way they approached things. Because I think mindset is fundamental in any job nowadays, but even more so, if you’ll allow me to say it, in the world of football. You’re under so much pressure, such high demands, and I think that’s something very important. During that time, I think that’s what I learned the most from it.

The club keeps growing year after year. How do you see it from the outside?

With great pride, knowing that although perhaps with the first team in official matches I wasn’t able to do my bit, I still spent four years there pushing and helping however I could.  I think it’s something really beautiful. You could see it, and all Atlético supporters know it, that once the club was managed a bit better, it could grow exponentially.

I could also give myself as an example, since I’m from Seville. It’s a similar case, though perhaps not quite as significant: Betis are also doing it the same way. We’re seeing the growth Spanish football is having when clubs are run by good administrators. The truth is I’m delighted with the new stadium they have, although deep down we all miss the Calderón because we know it had a special vibe that perhaps the Metropolitano still doesn’t have to this day. But everything the club is achieving is incredible, in the short space of time in which it’s doing it, and we’re all going to pray that this year they can put the cherry on top, finally remove that thorn we all still have from that Champions League final and let’s see if we can win the title.

How would you define Fernando Torres’ Atlético Madrileño?

I’d say very solid. For a reserve team, they have a very clear playing identity, with a world-class coach and when someone with that career and that experience manages a team, it’s very difficult for things to go badly. But it’s a team with many sides to its game, very complete both in attack and in defence, and they also compete very, very well away from home.

It’s true that our pitch is a bit peculiar because it’s a bit smaller than normal, and perhaps the kind of football that can be played here is not the same as in other slightly bigger stadiums, where there is more space. But I think Atlético de Madrid are a very complete team, with very good attacking players and also very strong defenders in the way they set up. It’s no coincidence that they’re up there and I think it’s going to be a very hard-fought match next Sunday. 

How do you think they can be hurt?

These kinds of matches, especially with the conditions of this ground, are decided by details. Set pieces, transitions after losing the ball where they can catch you on the counter, because in the end our stadium is a small pitch where all the players are very close together and it’s difficult for spaces to appear or for teams to have the chance to build long possession attacks and find passes between the lines. On top of the stage of the season we’re at, with everyone wanting the points, these games are usually decided by set pieces, some transition moment, or an individual error.

What differences do you notice between the Primera Federación and the old Segunda B?

There’s a big difference in terms of, on the one hand, infrastructure, I think everything is much more organised and  clearly defined. Secondly, by reducing the number of teams, the level of the division has gone up; there are only 40 teams. If you look at both groups, in most of them there are teams that could practically be competing in the Second division, or that were there only a few years ago and that have a very important fan base behind them and are significant clubs within our football at national level. I think it was the right decision to leave it at 40 teams and make it two groups.

At a collective level, survival. What is your personal objective for what remains of the season?

To fully reconnect, get my rhythm back, and recover good feelings after being out with a serious injury and spending so many months without playing. I also needed a bit of time and adaptation to feel comfortable again. Individually, my objective is to feel like I did before the injury again, to be able to find that level I was showing and what I’m working for. But, of course, the team objective comes first, which is to stay in the division and for Torremolinos to be competing next year in the Primera Federación. 

A promise if you stay up?

I haven’t made one yet because there are still 12 points left to play for, so I’m keeping it to myself for now. Maybe for the last two games because there’s still a bit of room, but well, when I have one, I’ll tell you.

Finally, from Atlético Sport, we would like to give our sincere thanks to Juventud Torremolinos and, especially, their communications department for making this interview so easy to arrange.

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