Samu Omorodion: "Without God, I would not be here today"
Samu Omorodion (Melilla, 2004) always liked football. So much so that, in the absence of balls, “he was kicking everything he found in the street”. His godfather, Antonio, saw something in him and, at the age of eight, decided to sign him up for the Sevilla youth academy.. But in youth, when he was barely 11 years old, the Seville reserve team told him to look for a team, which did not have the level. “When they don't count on you after getting used to being in a subsidiary and you leave, it's complicated. I thought that football was over, that if you weren't in a subsidiary you weren't worth it, but thanks to them I continued,” he tells EL MUNDO.
They are his mother and his sister, his two pillars together with God on which this player stands who in 90 minutes caused “everything to change” and made Atlético de Madrid, although they were already following him, accelerate his signing. “I pray every night and before the games, without God I couldn't have done it, I wouldn't be here today,” he thanks.
What he has achieved is no small feat.. We are talking about going in less than a year from playing in the Second RFEF in the Granada reserve team to doing so for Alavés on loan after being signed by the red and white club.. “I was in the car after dinner and I got a video call from my representative to tell me that Atlético had signed me. I didn't believe it, I was going to one of the best teams in the world when I was only 19 years old,” he reveals.
“I told him I wasn't going to fail.”
His was one of the two purchase operations that Atlético made this summer along with Javi Galán. Five million in the case of the Badajoz winger and six for the forward. “That they pay for you is a sign that they are very interested in having you and Atlético is one of the big ones,” he analyzes.
But Samu has had to deal with a lot to get to this point.. With many coaches who did, who appreciated him, but who had not finished seeing the player he is today and, what is better, what he will become in the future. Even his mother urged him not to abandon his studies, just in case. perhaps. “I told him that I was going to be a footballer and that I was not going to fail,” he reveals with the same conviction that he exhibited at that crucial point in his life.. In which he left Seville, the city where he lived with his family and felt safe, for Granada and the Nasrid team's affiliate.. The team in which he would triumph with 17 goals in 31 games.
His life is football 24 hours a day. It is, with permission from Play, your main leisure plan. Because Samu, although a smiling boy and a very good companion, is, above all, a thoughtful man who likes solitude and who is fascinated by his job: not being a footballer, but a striker.. “When I was little I played a few games as a winger, but a coach told me that mine was a nine and today I thank him for it,” he says.. So, as a result of obsession and the desire to succeed, Samu reviews games of the great European forwards to learn their movements.. They compare him with Diego Costa, with Haaland and they also tell him that he has things from his greatest idol, Samuel Eto'o, but, although he would love to have a career like the one mentioned above, he is him.. “I have things from them, but I want to write my own story,” he points out.
Samu celebrates his goal against Villarreal. EFE
He will need that personality and determination to fit into, currently, one of the best forwards in the world.. Morata and Griezmann are present in the top positions of the Golden Boot and it does not seem that they are going to let up. Samu places the Frenchman in the top 10 players in the world today, while he vindicates Morata “because he has been scoring goals all his life” and thanks him for the welcome he gave him in the Atlético locker room where he treated him. as if I had known him forever.”
But in that locker room there is only one boss and he has been that way for the last 12 years.. Diego Simeone appreciated the match he played against them at the Metropolitano, taking into account that it was his debut in the First Division. “We know what he is for Atlético and for world football, one of the best coaches in the world,” Samu begins and, although he would love to be there next year, he does not want favors: “I hope to be alone if I deserve it, yes No, to continue gaining experience,” he says.
At the moment, the one he has a crush on is his Alavés coach, Luis García Plaza, who says of him that “he looks like a great player”. The player from Melilla has three goals this season and his goal is to reach ten when the season ends. “Now I'm more confident, when I arrived it cost me a little more, but I'm not worried, I've scored goals all my life,” he says.
Selection
That facet, that of a scorer, is what has opened another very important door for him: that of the national team. He was surprised by the call from the Granada delegate “who only calls for important things” to announce his first call-up to the under-19 team, with which he cried, but he was immediately promoted to the sub-21 and, although it seems like a Hollywood script, it also sounds for the absolute. “I will continue working and if they see me coming up, the better,” he adds humbly.
Tonight, in Samu's head, there will be no more space than the 20 square meters that Oblak defends, the one who could be his future goalkeeper.. If he scores, it would be the second goal he has scored for his team this season. Of course, he will not celebrate it “out of respect for the club”, but he knows that another 90 good minutes against Simeone could bring him closer to his dream, which is to succeed at Atlético, his main objective and what he works for and continues to learn every year. days. Maybe he'll allow himself a big plate of his mother's fried rice, his favorite food, but not too much, he doesn't want too much frying to add fat to his impressive 193 centimeters. A soccer professional. 19 years old, he is.