Fernando Llorente at Telva

Here’s the text from the article on Fernando Llorente in the February edition of Telva.  It’s the type of interview that I prefer, because there’s not a lot of talk about football.  Instead, the focus is on the person, and as you know, that’s what interests me the most.  And Fernando is very interesting – and adorable.

He’s one of the most dangerous players in our league, he’s desired by the best teams in Europe and he’s put the focus back on Athletic de Bilbao.  And his effect on women is almost narcotic [de acuerdo!!].  I study Fernando Llorente from across the table, observing his cara de niño bueno and seeing a shyness that touches you.  Fernando reveals himself to be a simple man that – aside from football – loves eating the pears of his pueblo, watching vampire series and “playing poker with Iker.”

He asks for a Pago de Carraovejas, his favorite tinto as of late.  We can’t stay long at the lunch, because at 17h Fernando has to go to his English class, “and he can’t miss even one,” his brother Jesús told me by phone when we set up the date.  Fernando explains, “last year, we played in the Europa League and so we spent a lot of time outside of Spain.  I couldn’t communicate with others, and so I felt really bad.  That’s why I’m taking it seriously now: two hours of class a day.”

He goes on to say, “I believe a lot in discipline.  For all the good qualities I have as a player, I can only become the best if I take things seriously.  In football, the small details are what makes the difference.”  The same is true with how he takes care of his body:  “I watch what I eat.  I go to a naturopath and he recommended that I cut back on salt and eat a lot of rice – preferably brown rice – and to get my protein from fish.

The most interesting thing about Llorente is when he has to improvise.  Halfway through his very correct – and dry – speech, out comes things such as “when I was a kid I ate a ton of candy, but now I only eat them when I go to the movies…”

I imagine Llorente as a child, his blond head behind the counter of the store his father had in Rincón del Soto, where he grew up, and where, according to him, “the best pears in the world are.”  They called him El Conrao there, because his paternal grandfather was named that and so he and his father “inherited” that name.  He remembers scoring goals there with his first team, Funes.  At the age of 11, he tried out at Lezama and Amorrortu, the coach, signed him for Athletic.  At the age of five, he already knew what he wanted to be: “my father took me to San Mamés for the first time when I was five, and from then on, I knew that I wanted to play there one day.”

But it wasn’t always easy: “it was very tough for me to leave home at such a young age, and give up living my childhood with my friends and family.  I was only 11 when I moved to Bilbao, and although I lived with Amorrortu and his family so that I wouldn’t feel so alone, I cried every night when I thought about my parents.”  Jesús tells me later that he only found out about this not too long ago.

As he eats his scrambled eggs, mushrooms and foie dish – his favorite in the restaurant – Fernando tells me about his life.  He relates to me his beginnings in Baskonia, his nervous debut in the first division against Espanyol six years ago and the culmination of a dream, when he was called up for the World Cup on May 20 last year.  Although eight months have passed since then, his voice still shakes as he says, “what we achieved surpassed all expectations.”

I ask him to tell me some secrets from the locker room.  Fernando tells me that the person who most livens up the rocker room is Sergio Ramos, the team’s “official DJ, who has a gift for picking the perfect song for each moment.  We listened to Waka Waka a thousand times during the World Cup.”  But it was Reina and Villa that Llorente spent time with in Ibiza during the summer:  “Together, we’ve had some great moments.  Reina is what you see, a showman; he has an amazing capability to speak to and win over crowds.  It would be very difficult for me, since I get embarrassed easily.  Villa is a great guy, and also very fun, he loves telling jokes.”  And as for the queen’s visit to the locker room, “she’s affectionate, charming and very down-to-earth.  She told us that both she and the king were extremely happy.”

There are several things I always ask footballers: whether they have any rituals, and how they spend the free time in concentraciones.  For the former, Llorente says, “I don’t have good luck charms but I do pray, with my team and with the national team.  After, we have a chant to motivate us before the battle…”  And as to the latter, “when I was younger, I played videogames, but now I prefer cards.  With Iker, we always play long games of poker, he’s great at it!”

And unlike many footballers, Fernando says that “I like to save, watch what I spend…”  I believe him, even though he admits that he doesn’t know what his bank balance is because his lawyers take care of that.  The last splurge he allowed himself was a Porsche Panamera.  His desire to travel the world also doesn’t fit in with this stereotype, until you find out that top on his wish list of places to travel to are Dubai and Las Vegas.

But for now, where he likes spending most of his time is at home, in Berango, because “whenever I go out, a lot of people come up to me and it overwhelms me.  I would have liked to go to the U2 concert in San Sebastián, for example, but that would have been like jumping into the lion’s mouth…”  He trains in the mornings, goes home at 14h to eat lunch, takes a siesta, has his English classes in the afternoon and watches American TV series at night: “I’ve watched Lost, Prison Break, a bit of Heroes, The Vampire Diaries… ah!  And I love Spartacus: Blood and Sand.”  He also likes going to the movies, since it meets his requirements for anonymity, being dark: “I love buying a big box of popcorn and going to see a good action movie, such as Law Abiding Citizen, for example.  Or Avatar.”

I ask him if he’s one of those who dance in the clubs.  His response is, “I’m not very good at it, but I do have a specialty: David Guetta.”  I also ask about his girlfriend.  The only things we know about her are that she’s from San Sebastián, that she’s a doctor, that they’ve been together for quite a few years and that it was she who sat next to Jesús in the stands in South Africa.  Fernando says, “we met seven years ago in Bilbao, in Derio, the residence of Athletic.  She came to study in Bilbao, and I was there.”  I ask if it was love at first sight.  He responds, “more or less.  One week after we met, we began going out.”  My next question is if he’s romantic.  “Sometimes,” is the response.  “Or, in other words, no,” I say.  This leads to the first time he raises his voice: “I am!  I give her gifts that I know she’ll like:  her favorite dessert, a flower… Two years ago, I organized a surprise visit to New York.”

At 16:40h, his phone rings discretely, putting an end to our conversation.  “Sorry, I usually have it on silent,” he tells me.  “¡María!  Yes, yes, I’m on my way home… but I have clean shirts, no?”  My last question to him, asked as soon as he hung up, was if he remembers his first kiss.  The response: “Yes!  I remember it.  But the first ones are never any good, no?”

As a kid… I loved watching The Simpsons and Baywatch [jajaja!!!], and cats.  I raised one, Flipper, by feeding it with a baby bottle.

I invest in… clothing.  I love the brand Scotch & Soda, although the truth is that I usually wear tracksuits most of the time.

An unfulfilled promise… is to go skydiving.  I promised I would do that if we won the World Cup.

I love… pasta, Melendi, Gladiator, bullfighting, the food stands on the beaches of Ibiza, Cola Cao, and my nephews and nieces.