The 169 centimeters of muscle that appear in the awning area of Las Rozas, where interviews with international players have been held for a couple of years, are surprising.. Fran García (Ciudad Real, 24 years old) is standing straight, as they say, and speaks with that La Mancha accent that has not gone away in the 11 years he has been in Madrid. He arrived at 13 in Valdebebas, the glamour, and has spent three years in Vallecas, the neighborhood with K. From that mix has emerged a kid with an interesting speech, who, it seems, has not gone to his head to return to the brilliance of Real Madrid, where everything is multiplied by infinity.

He is in Las Rozas fighting for a position, that of left back, with Alejandro Balde, with the permission of José Luis Gayà, who is injured, and although it seems that tonight he will wait on the bench against Scotland, those who have seen him train this week do not have it so clear.

I read in an interview that he doesn't feel special for being a soccer player. Of course I don't feel special.. We are people who do their jobs, like others. We are lucky that we like our work, and we are happy to do it. But we are not different or special. In someone so young it is not common to hear that. Some seem to walk on the ground. Yeah, I don't know.. To be here you need to play football well, which is like a gift, and a lot of effort and sacrifice, of course, but there is also the luck factor, which is also important in this world.. But that doesn't make you different from another person who has to work eight hours a day. How do you feel different from a plumber? Not at all.. I don't feel different at all. We are equal people, we have feelings, we have to comply with the same rules. Being a footballer is not about being different or special. Not even in doing what you like? Well, yes, maybe in that. Many people have to go to work or dedicate themselves to something that does not really fulfill them, or that has nothing to do with what they have studied, a career or whatever.. But I insist, I think luck is very important. Do you still maintain contact with your people? Yes, yes, of course, and having the same friends. That doesn't have to change. But know that there are people who do change. Surely, but being humble, continuing to have your group of friends, your circle, is what keeps your feet on the ground.. It is important not to let your ego go up. We are normal people. Football is already too isolated and everything that involves having your feet on the ground and maintaining that core of people who tell you: 'Hey, let's see what you do' is essential.

Fran García, with the colors of the national team. RFEF Who is that group of people in your case? I have a very important group here in Madrid, because I came when I was 13, and then my family, my close friends there… When you return to town, is Fran or is he a Madrid player? Now that has changed a little. I try to be a normal person, but it's not easy. I understand it, huh! I have been a child and I have been the first to give a hard time when I saw someone famous on the street, and I chased him and didn't stop until he listened to me.. That's why when a child comes to me I always stop, because 10 seconds of your life brightens someone's day, and that's worth a lot.. Or a person who is not well emotionally and you encourage him. But does he feel that he can no longer be Fran since he plays for Madrid? I try to do the same things as always. That's important to me too.. Maybe I have had to change some aspects. For example? Well, for example, go to eat, instead of going at two o'clock when I know it will be full, go at three o'clock, or a little before. But nothing changes. There is the essence of the person. There are times when you can't, but the less you change, the better. What is the worst thing about playing for Madrid and the national team? Surely the pressure we are subjected to. But in every type of job there are good and bad things, and you have to deal with it and overcome it.

It is essential that they tell you what you do not want to hear

How do you cope? Well, being close to your people and knowing how to disconnect with your family and friends. How do you disconnect? Going for a walk and having a coffee in good company. I live in Alcobendas and go out through Valdelatas and La Dehesa. It's a very good area, I've been living there for three years, people already know me. Going to the movies or having coffee. Normal things. You didn't give up your studies. You can't forget about your studies, because you never know when this is over, and you always have to maintain. You seem very focused. I have people close to me who help me keep my feet on the ground and people who tell you things you don't want to hear. That's basic. A former coach of his says that he's a bit of an idiot in training. Yes, yes, sometimes I spend too much time training.

These days, in Las Rozas, coexistence is still very strange. No matter how much the days go by, the abrupt departure of Luis Rubiales from the Federation continues to cause movements in the very bowels of the organization, which is struggling these days to barely survive.. Some regular workers of the Federation are missing, including the communications director, Pablo García Cuervo, liaison with the media since 2018. Andreu Camps is also missing, but since he was more intuited than seen, he is less noticeable, just like Miguel García Caba. They continue, although in a lower profile, Albert Luque, the director of the national team, who has made many of the day-to-day decisions of this concentration that were pending last Friday, 48 hours after the players arrived, because the state in which the Federation lives is the exception. Nobody knows very well who's in charge.

The president is Pedro Rocha, yes, who is considering running for election, but several sources consulted explain that it is Elvira Andrés, the director of the Presidential Cabinet, who really has the power today, supported by Alfredo Olivares, director of competitions. and man, he was, trusted by Rubiales. Rocha is the visible face (on Tuesday she met with the president of Aragon, Jorge Azcón, and the mayor of Zaragoza, Natalia Chueca, as the first step in the analysis of possible venues for the World Cup) and Andrés the invisible one, the one who has agreed with the Government on the deadlines that will lead to elections in February or March of next year.

Workers, meanwhile, look forward to developments and try to carry out their daily lives in an environment that remains murky.. At the last September rally, a senior executive who comes and goes in importance within the house alluded to Game of Thrones to explain what is happening inside these days.. “If you have coffee with one, the other does not greet you, and so on,” he explained to his interlocutors.

NORMAL

The expedition arrived yesterday in Seville, in part, fleeing from all that environment. On the usual floors of the Eurostars Torre Sevilla, the Spanish team, with Luis de la Fuente in charge, is trying at this time to recover some normality. It helps to move away from Las Rozas, but it would help more, they say, to beat Scotland today and Norway on Sunday, something that would leave the team virtually classified with the two games in November remaining.. “Only knowing that by winning we are almost in the Eurocup gives us an idea of the importance of the matches, nothing else is needed,” he said when asked if, beyond sports, Spain needed to talk more than ever. of the ball.

Needing something like letting football take center stage while everything takes its course in the Federation. The problem, in this case, is that no one knows what course events will take.. With the Rubiales trial in the National Court open (in addition to the rest of the litigation such as the Super Cup), with many people from the former president's entourage still inside – some with million-dollar clauses that prevent, or at least make difficult, their dismissals-, uncertainty is the bread of many in there. Even thinking about Spain getting into the Euro Cup, that is not going to change. But at least it would help. Or not.

Meanwhile, some 4,000 Scots will walk through Seville today, many of them wearing shirts against Rodrigo Hernández, who after the first leg said something like that Scottish football had been “a bit rubbish.”. In reality, the fans of Spain's rival tonight care much more about the temperature at Cruzcampo than what the City player said, who, like everyone else, goes to this event with a much better face than the one he had when leaving Hampden. Park in March with a very ugly 2-0 against. «We are stronger than we were then. We are a much better team than then. Now we have to go out on the field and show it,” De la Fuente closed, also more sure of himself.

The president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), Víctor Francos, has confirmed that this Wednesday he has signed the authorization for the elections to take place for the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). The representative of the highest sports organization, in a meeting with journalists, has expressed that the electoral process could take place between mid-February and early March 2024.

There would be a possibility that they would be held earlier, as reported at that meeting, and that is for the Court of Arbitration for Sports (TAD) to decide.. This Wednesday, the CSD submitted to this body the complaint presented to it by Miguel Ángel Galán, president of the CENAFE coaching school, in which he accused Pedro Rocha, interim president of the RFEF of “very serious infractions”.

In his opinion, Rocha had to call elections imminently after the resignation of Luis Rubiales according to article 31.8 of the RFEF statutes.. However, the CSD believes that there is no regulation that establishes a deadline for calling elections or that they must be immediate.

The announcement was made at a meeting with journalists for the presentation of the Draft Order that regulates electoral processes in the Spanish Sports Federations.. A project that, according to its processing deadlines, will be binding for all elections that take place in 2024.

This project, which is based on five axes: democratization, good government, equality, inclusion and transparency, was conceived in August 2023, shortly before the controversy over the non-consensual kiss between Luis Rubiales and Jenni Hermoso, but it has been evolving with the circumstances that the Rubiales case has generated.

Anti-rubials

With respect to good governance, for example, people who have causes of incapacity, incompatibility, ineligibility or who have been convicted by a final judgment by the disciplinary bodies of national or international federations or by national sports courts are prevented from being candidates for the General Assembly. or international.

An attempt is also made to limit clientelism in federative positions by eliminating the ex-officio positions of the Assemblies so that all their members must be elected.. In addition, the requirements to be an eligible member or voter are reduced to facilitate access to representative positions.. Now it is enough that they are federated members of legal age who have participated in some competition or activity of their federation.

Equality

One of the substantial parts of this new order, which replaces another from 2015, is the promotion of equality. In this draft, which has already been sent to all interested parties (federations, clubs, establishments, athletes…), the presence of women in federative assemblies is promoted..

A greater presence of women in the federations will be guaranteed according to the highest range of the percentage of female licenses in each sport.. That is, in estates with a number of female licenses between 0 and 10%, 10% of women must be elected; If they are between 10% and 25%, 25% and greater than 25%, this percentage must be 40%.

Finally, this project, which if it follows the normal deadlines must be approved at the end of November, states that the votes must be equal, free, direct and secret. These votes will have to be ratified with a national identity document or passport.

For the CSD, this order wants to democratize and make the federative electoral processes more transparent and put athletes at the center of them, giving them more weight. Without forgetting, of course, the need to put a stop to cases like Rubiales'.

It is not a record nor is it necessary. Kilian Jornet, in his essence. Where he grew up, in the Pyrenees, jumping from peak to peak at an inconceivable speed, passing through sections of grade IV climbing like someone walking. This Tuesday, after summiting Pica d'Estats, the best mountain runner of all time completed his return to his origins: 177 summits of more than 3,000 meters in just 8 days. They are not all three thousand of the Pyrenees nor was there a notary next to him, so there is no record, but the challenge completed is equally notable. Balaitus, Garmo Negro, Vignemale, Cilindro, Monte Perdido, Pic Long, Pic de Posets, Punta de Lliterola, Aneto, Sayó, Montcalm or the Pica itself… The mountains that Jornet dreamed of as a child were once again at his feet, after many years living first in Chamonix, in the Alps, and now in Norway.

“Rediscovering the peaks that I no longer remembered has been a spectacular experience and, on the other hand, one of the hardest things I have ever done,” he noted at the end of his expedition.

It has not been a great sporting year for Jornet. In spring he tried to climb Everest from the west ridge, but an avalanche forced him to give up. In the summer he prepared for another UMTB – he even got the points – but a sacrum injury knocked him out two weeks before the start.. This 2023 had left him with a bitter taste and he decided to take it away at home with a challenge of his own, personal and family.. In fact, his mother, Nuria Burgada, who was a teacher at the Martinet rural school, in the Pyrenees themselves, accompanied him on some part of the journey.. “This year I wanted to participate in some races, but an injury prevented me from doing so. After recovering, I began to consider different projects and it occurred to me to chain the peaks of more than 3,000 meters in the Pyrenees. I had this idea in my head but I didn't know if it would be a possible challenge or if it was crazy. After consulting it and getting advice from people who know the routes of the Pyrenees very well, I decided to do it,” commented Jornet.

485 kilometers on his legs

Their adventure began on Monday 2nd from the foot of the Frondella summit, in Sallent de Gállego, Huesca. During the trip through some of the most iconic Pyrenean peaks he managed to chain more than 40 peaks in a single day, walking 39 hours in a row and traveling by bike to connect sections that were to his liking.. “Advancing through all these edges has been a pleasure and I have really enjoyed the routes. I had climbed these peaks when I was 13 years old but I didn't remember them, and this has meant that on a visual level this has been a very intense experience,” discovered Jornet, who has been showing his routes on social networks, especially on Strava, and through of its brand, Nnormal.

The data is scandalous: in eight days, a total of 485.65 kilometers, a difference in altitude of more than 43,000 meters and more than 155 hours of physical activity. During the adventure, Jornet has also been able to test different prototypes of the Normal itself in very technical and different terrain and conditions. “It has been an excellent field of work: the use that you can give a product for a few years, concentrated in one week,” he concludes with his mind already set on 2024.

What will he do then? Logic dictates that he will return to UTMB, the most important race on earth, but Jornet has never followed logic. Maybe he will continue searching in the mountains for his own path. It will not be a record nor will it be necessary.

“Saint” refers to a person “perfect and free from all guilt” or of “special virtue or example”. However, for the Robbery Section of the National Police it is practically the opposite of what the Spanish Language Dictionary defines.. “A saint is a facilitator. “He is the individual who provides information to criminals when perpetrating a robbery,” the head of this section of the Specialized and Violent Crime Unit (UDEV) of the General Police Station explains to ELMUNDO.

These saints, in the case of footballers, are people around them “who do not have to be very close”, who know not only the habits of the player and his family, but also the entrances and security systems of the house in question. the ones they reside. And, many times, the exact location of the personal property that is of interest to the criminals who carry out the assault on the home.

“There are quite a few robberies in luxury residences where thieves know exactly where they have to look and what tools they have to use,” the Robbery Section reveals.. This not only limits the time of the crime and makes it easier for the criminals to escape but, sometimes, it causes the victims' complaints to be delayed by the time it takes them to realize what has happened to them “due to very clean access.” or the resident taking a long time to return home.

This is the farm of Sergio Ramos and Pilar Rubio attacked when their children were inside

Athletes, and especially footballers, are a very attractive group for criminals because they accumulate numerous valuable objects and also cash in their homes.. Furthermore, “residences are always located in exclusive places where it is assumed that there are things of value,” says the head of the Robbery section.

For example, the former footballer and current president of Real Valladolid, Ronaldo Nazario, has a house in one of the best areas of the island of Ibiza, Cala Jondal, a place where numerous recreational yachts of people with great purchasing power anchor.. This was the property in which the footballer Marco Verratti, then with Paris Saint Germain, suffered a robbery in the summer of 2022 in which numerous valuable objects and cash were stolen.

Another window that these organized groups also use are social networks.. Many times they take advantage of the photos that the footballers themselves post in these virtual public spaces to obtain information or the house they are going to raid or the objects they are interested in stealing.. “They don't even need such an in-depth examination if they are very active on social networks, collecting that information already helps them,” they comment from Robos.

Verratti in training with PSG. A.C.. POUJOULAT AFP

However, despite the juicy loot they can obtain, the great security measures that footballers have in their homes represent a great obstacle for criminals.. That is why the figure of the saint is so important for the assailants when it comes to facilitating their work.

In Spain, around 85,000 home burglaries occur annually, although in 2019 this type of crime amounted to more than 98,000, according to the Crime Balance of the Ministry of the Interior.. So far in 2023, home invasions have dropped 1.6 points compared to the same period in 2022.

Normally, criminals choose times when the house has the fewest occupants possible, but, as happened recently in the home of Sevilla footballer Sergio Ramos and presenter Pilar Rubio, where their children and two caregivers were, “There are groups that get into the property and don't care,” explains the head of the section.

However, Ramos and his brother and agent, René, have already thwarted another previous robbery attempt that some thieves attempted in the player's house when he lived in Madrid, so “the most profitable thing is that there are no residents because it makes the commission easier.” apostille from the National Police. Something that, at least in the case of footballers, is not difficult to know since their match schedule is public and notorious.

Another who suffered a robbery with him at home was Aubameyang when he was a member of Barcelona.. The player was beaten at his home in Castelldefels to make him reveal the code to his safe. However, it is rarer that criminals resort to violence when perpetrating these crimes.

Falcao, Benzema, Zidane, Isco, Morata, Rodrygo, Joaquín, William Carvalho, Castillejo, Piqué…. The list of footballers who have had their homes robbed is endless.. 2019 was a terrible year to such an extent that, after a wave of crimes in the homes of several members of the Real Madrid squad, Lucas Vázquez's wife even posted on social media: “One after another. When will you be able to live peacefully in your own home? When can I go to work in peace?”

Although it is difficult to prove it, the Robbery Section of the National Police is in a position to ensure that the vast majority were crimes committed thanks to information from a saint. Never has a religious mention had such a negative connotation for a union of athletes.