In 2002 it was released in theaters I want to be like Beckham, the story of an Indian girl who breaks with her traditions ready to fulfill her dream: playing soccer. The film broke taboos in the United Kingdom. Lucy Bronze, for example, Barcelona soccer player and chosen as the best in the world in 2019, found her passion after watching the film. But beyond the fight for football for all and for all, the film had another message: visualizing dreams to achieve goals. A formula that the fighter Conor McGregor uses: “If you can see it in your head and have the courage to say it publicly… That’s going to happen.” David Raya, goalkeeper of Spain, son of mud in English football, had that courage: “I am a big believer in the law of attraction,” he said in the mixed zone of the Düsseldorf stadium. He had been one of the most outstanding players in Spain’s victory against Albania (four stops).
The law of attraction became fashionable in 2006 after the best-selling book The secret. The theory is none other than positive thoughts (energy) attract positive results. “I don’t know if it’s a question of positive energy or not,” says Andrés Manzano, sports director of Cornellà, the team where Raya was trained. “The only thing I can assure you,” adds Manzano, “is that if David has arrived where he did, it is because he is a pain. When he was with us, he finished training and he always wanted more. He asked us to continue working with the boys from another category.”
Cornellà has a collaboration agreement with Blackburn. It was in the summer of 2012, when Manzano brought Raya, one of the promises of his youth team, to the English team. “They don’t want him, the coach says that he will never be six feet tall (1.83),” they warned Manzano. “Take into account his size and not his size. Listen to me, you have to give him a chance,” he responded. In the test, on a field where there was more mud than grass, Raya threw and threw. The more muddy he got, the more he tried. He stayed in the Blackburn youth academy.
“My story is that of a boy who leaves his country at 16, alone, and fulfills his dreams: he ends up playing for his national team, in the Champions League, and for one of the biggest clubs in the Premier League and in the world” , Explain. Summarized like this, it seems simple. But Raya did not give up even when Blackburn sent him on loan to Southport (fifth division). A football and life school in just three months. And, of course, more mud. “There were players who couldn’t make ends meet. “That experience is deeply rooted in me,” he said in an interview with The Guardian.
He returned to Blackburn and in 2019 he signed for Brentford. There he began a new education for the goalkeeper. “He learned the game with his feet at Brentford. He wasn’t particularly skilled at that aspect of the game. But like in everything he does, he always makes an effort,” explains Manzano. At Brentford he began to perfect his technique, until at Arsenal he came to train as a centre-back. “You have to have an open mind because football evolves,” Raya emphasizes. His development surprised even Jürgen Klopp. “He could easily wear the number 10″.
Luis Enrique caught Raya for La Roja and Arteta for Arsenal. The technician was so convinced gunner that their goalkeeper was the Catalan who even had to deal with the affection of the fans for the Englishman Ramsdale.
Raya continued doing his thing, as convinced that he could succeed at Arsenal (41 games) as in the national team. “What a great game,” Unai Simón and Morata praised him. His secret: the law of attraction. In short, the work.
You can follow Morning Express Sports on Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
.
.
_