Yeray Álvarez: “The disease tells you: ‘This also happens to you, wake up, this is the real world”.

-What is your assessment of the season?

– The truth is that it has been a very good year for Athletic, a dream year that in the end we have not been able to culminate with that Europa League final in San Mamés, but I think we have to give credit to everything we have been doing for our position in La Liga, for the whole year, the trajectory and the path we have taken in Europe. Perhaps we are still a little frustrated for not being able to reach the final, but in a few years we will surely give value to this season.

– You have been awarded the FutbolJobs “Resilience” award, do you think this is a word that has defined your career?

– It is true that my soccer career has often been at a standstill due to different injuries, illnesses, which in the end have taken me out of the field of play. But, well, they have always been, I don’t know if I should call them challenges, but they have always been something like a force to want to come back. The desire to recover and to feel like a footballer again, my whole career has been like that, almost every year I have had injuries, in the end, everything has been a little bit like that.

-How do you remember that day when you come to train, at the age of 21, and they tell you that you have a disease that you didn’t expect at all?

– Well, it was in Ibaigane. We were on vacation, we had a few days off when I was going out. It was in a room with the president, the doctors, Valverde…. And the truth is that at the first moment I don’t think you are able to assimilate what is really coming. It is true that at the end the word tumor or cancer or something like that has an impact, but I think that until a few hours or a few days later, when you go for medical tests, tumor markers, etc., and they start to explain a little bit about the process or what the disease is, you are not fully aware of what you have.

– I read that the worst part was the news that you had relapsed, a year later…. How did you find it worse, physically or psychologically?

-No, psychologically I was quite well, in the end I was helped a lot by my family, friends, the team that had the detail when they all shaved their heads, which was super nice. Physically it was much more complicated. In the end, in a chemotherapy process, almost everybody knows, if they have gone through it or if a family member or acquaintance has gone through it, and it is quite a hard process. In the end, being there hooked to a machine that is putting shit, so to speak, in your body, but you know that it is going to help you heal. In the end, I got really fat, really bloated. You pretty much lose all your muscle. It was three months. And it is true that I came here to Lezama to try to do a little bit of exercise. At the beginning it was easier, but then, as you accumulate more chemo in your body, it is more complicated to come. It is more difficult, but it is true that I have always tried to exercise because from the very first moment I was told that it helped a lot.

-Obviously your people supported you, but also the world of soccer in general?

-Yes, I have talked about it more than once, that I would have liked not to have been so recognized in the end by all the people because everybody knew that I was Yeray, everybody knew that I was that boy who was going through that process and, in the end, I think that was something that did not make me feel good: knowing that everybody is behind you, everybody at the end is reminding you of the fact that you are trying to overcome cancer. I think that for my taste or for me, I would have liked to spend it more with my family, with my colleagues. But well, that’s how it happened, I assimilated it that way and it is true that to this day I am still grateful to everyone for the support they gave me.

-In private you would receive thousands of messages. Do you remember any special ones?

-Yes, I received many from players: from Carles Puyol, for example, and some others. I can’t remember right now, but it’s true that quite a few people got involved.

-What did you feel when you saw that all your colleagues shaved their heads in solidarity with you?

-At the end, disbelief. I mean, I didn’t expect it at all. I came here, as I said, to try to do what I could, to try to do a little exercise, and in the end to see the whole team… to this day it still makes me emotional and fills me with pride.

-Many people who have overcome the disease say that when you get over it, you are not the same person. Did it also change something in your way of being?

-Yes, in the end, when you are in soccer…. I was caught at that moment when they say that you live in a bubble, that you are separated from what really is society or the world today, I was caught at that moment and I think that the disease made me come down from that bubble, put my feet on the ground and say: “Wow, this also happens to us”. I think that many times being a soccer player you think you are a little bit, I don’t know if you are untouchable, but you think you are special, you know? And I think that the disease tells you: “No, no, this also happens to you and wake up, because this is the real world”.

– What message can you send to people who may be given this news any day now?

– They should lean on their family, they should lean on the people close to them, on all the people around them and, above all, they should not give up and they should always try to fight, they should do as much exercise as they can, they should eat the best diet possible during the process, they should take care of themselves and I think there is no other recipe than that. In the end the process is going to be long, it is going to be complicated, but above all they should support themselves.

– And what message do you send to the people who have power or decision to allocate more resources for the detection and cure of this disease?

– Well, in the end I think that the people in charge make their own decisions and I can’t do much there either. It would be great if they would continue investing, if they would invest much more in resources against cancer, against diseases, but we know how the world works nowadays, it is a pity, but it would be good if they would invest much more money than is invested.

-In sporting terms, Athletic has made it into the Champions League, but the bitter aftertaste of the Europa League semifinal remains…

-Yes, well, in the end I don’t think the result reflected either of the two games, but it is true that at the end you leave a bit crestfallen after conceding seven goals and seeing that in the game here, in 15 minutes, the game was turned around and in the second leg we had them on the ropes for 70 minutes. I think they suffered a lot, we made the fans trust us, we made them believe in us, and in the end I’ll keep that, the fact that there were moments when the fans believed in the comeback. We believed, those of us who were on the pitch, we knew we could, but it didn’t happen and in the end we have to keep the path, we have to keep the path we have had in Europe, which I think has been good, not to say very good, without that final point that was to reach the final here in Bilbao, but I keep that.

– Are you particularly looking forward to making your debut in the Champions League?

-I wasn’t there. I didn’t play the last time Athletic was in the Champions League. Hopefully, I have already said it and I will repeat it, that the objective was to play in the Champions League. It is a competition that we have never played, it is a competition that in the end is played by the best and to see the club of your life, a club like Athletic, playing in the Champions League is going to be something incredible.

– What do you think has been the basis of this success that has finally led you to play in the Champions League?

– Well, I think that in the end the fact that many times it is said that this is a family, that people here live their daily lives in a different way. I think that is the key. In the end, in a season with so many games: Cup, Europe, League, the rotations, all the players that have come in. Well, I have had different situations throughout the season. In some I played, in others I have not played, now I have ended up playing more…. I think that, in the end, everyone has performed at a high level, not to say very high, when there have been absentees, when there have been injuries… The players who have come in for those other players, who in the end have had some difficulty to be there, I think they have performed at an exceptional level and in the end I think that has been the key throughout the season. They have given us a lot and I believe that for that you have to be prepared, you have to work every day, which is what we do here, and it doesn’t matter if you have played a lot, if you have played a little, if you are angry, if you are not angry, I believe that work is not negotiable here and that is one of the keys.

-You are one of Athletic’s captains. How do you educate, in quotation marks, this new crop of lions coming from Lezama?

-Well, in the end they come from the bottom, I think all of them. When I was young and came to the team I had examples like Aduriz, Muniain, who had been here for almost 10 years, Raúl García, Iraizoz, Iturraspe, Susaeta, Beñat…. I don’t know, many players that in the end you share many years in the locker room with them and because of the role of being captain, I think I’ve always looked up to them. We have had the best example in the world. Unfortunately, this year he is leaving us, which is De Marcos. Last year we had another incredible example, Iker Muniain. And in the end they are the guides of the team, the ones who finally take the reins, not because it’s their turn or because they have to carry them by name or because of their seniority or captaincy. I think that in the end you are born, it comes out of you, over the years you see it and in the end you learn. I have already told you, I have learned from the best and today I try to copy them as much as I can.

-Speaking of young people, is Nico that good?

-Yes, I think you could already see it from the time he arrived when he was very small, at the end the overflow, the dribbling, little by little he is gaining in finishing… every time he makes better decisions and he is an exceptional player. I think that players of that quality or that level are very difficult to find, it is very difficult to see them and having him here at Athletic is a joy for us.

-I suppose that because he was Iñaki’s brother, you already had him under control when he was very young?

– Yes, you could see it. I think that in the end you have to polish it, you have to have a focused head, you have to know how to carry all that weight or everything that comes with being a player of such a high level. But he has an exceptional family, he has an exceptional brother and I am sure that he is coping very well.

-Finally, do you know the FutbolJobs platform?

-Yes, I think that in the end for any soccer player, for anyone who wants to get into the world of soccer, I think it’s a great platform. I encourage everyone who likes soccer or who has that minimum of interest to join or use it because I think it is a very useful tool.