Basque → English transcript

GERATUZIÓN

Finally, the moment is here.

I think ever since the Euros ended, we were all thinking about this day coming,

and we are all carrying many injuries.

We arrive as the team we are, as the champions of Europe,

and we will go all out.

Yes, I remember the sequence where I got injured,

how I was praying inside that it was nothing,

that it was just a cramp or something,

because I saw the World Cup so close

and I knew it was a disc injury I'd never had before,

but that it wouldn't be a short recovery.

So I was afraid of it being serious,

and above all, even if it wasn't serious,

of relapsing and potentially missing the World Cup.

It's also true that it helps, knowing you're going to play in a World Cup,

so my mind is as if I hadn't played a single match all season

and I'm really looking forward to making my debut.

In my mind, it's as if I've been playing football for ten years,

but in reality it's been three years, and four years ago I was playing with them at the sports center,

so a kid who was playing with you three years ago is now going to play in a World Cup.

It has to be something crazy, very crazy.

Have you ever imagined yourself lifting the World Cup?

A thousand times, in my room,

or when we won a match at my neighborhood sports center,

because I think the World Cup is the greatest thing in football.

It works better for me, it might be more or less,

but it works better for me, in the end when your standards are higher,

you raise your level.

If my standards were those of another player,

maybe I wouldn't be at the level I'm playing at,

So I like it to be that way,

I take it as a challenge and I really enjoy it.

Would you like to be anonymous and go out and have no one know you?

A lot. I would pay so much to be able to go have a quiet drink,

or to be able to go for a walk in Barcelona or anywhere.

I think it's the only bad thing about our life.

They're the ones I empathize with most. In the end, when I see a young child,

I know that in his mind he is seeing his idol

and he doesn't understand, it's not like, 'I'm having a bad day today,'

I think at that moment you really have to stop and take a photo,

because when I was little my idol was Neymar

and I would have died for a photo with Neymar when I was little,

I mean, I could do anything.

If you told me to go to Russia by train,

I would go to Russia by train for a photo with him.

So yes, I really empathize with them

because I know they're only thinking about being in front of their idol

and that they want to be like him and want a photo with him.

I think he knows he's going to play for Spain,

I don't know exactly what a World Cup is,

but he knows he's going to play for Spain.

He likes Neymar, he likes Pedri, he likes Raphinha

and he likes me.

And well, and Cristiano, he likes him too.

In the end, we play against very good national teams.

If we play against France, they are very important,

but if the team isn't doing well, we stand no chance.

So that's why I go with that excitement,

because I know we have a great national team,

one of the best we've ever had

and we have very important players.

Starting with Rodri, who is a Ballon d'Or winner.

Ollarzabal, who for me is top,

he comes out of the World Cup as a forward, I think it's great.

And besides, he's playing with confidence,

we have Pedri, whom I love watching play.

Position by position,

starting with Cucurella, who, since the Euros,

looks like a different player.

We have a national team of great players

and in goal, we have the three best.