Madrid (EFE) with the rojiblanco team, of which he felt that “it was the best” for him after a conversation with Diego Simeone and to which he arrives prepared and at “a very good moment” that must be “shown” on the pitch.
“The first hours and days that I have spent as an Atlético de Madrid player have been incredible. A great experience. I really want the truth to start (the start of training), I really want everything to start,” he said, with an unchanging smile, at the ceremony held in the Cívitas Metropolitano stadium auditorium, surrounded by his friends.
For the first time in eleven years, away from Chelsea. And at Diego Simeone’s Atlético. “When I spoke with the coach and the people at the club, I felt that it was the best for me. I felt that I could contribute a lot to the group, to the club, those values of what the club is. What the fans push I wanted to experience as a local, I have experienced it several times as a visitor and I want to come here to help ”, he declared.
“I think that very good things can be done, based on work and sacrifice. I have seen how the club has grown in the last ten or eleven years. It is a club that I really wanted to come to,” said Azpilicueta, who rejected offers from other clubs, such as Inter Milan, to join Atlético de Madrid, with whom he will begin his preseason training sessions this Friday at the Ciudad Deportiva de Majadahonda.
“To try to show that I deserve to continue, hopefully it will be many years”
He has signed for one season. “First of all, I am 33 years old. I didn’t expect a five-year contract. It’s normal. But I also have the example of last summer, that I signed for two years with Chelsea and this year I have decided to change. At this time and since he believed that it was the best, it has been decided that it be so, ”he reviewed.
“You have to earn it on the field. The past is very beautiful, I am very proud to have won the titles I have won, but you have to show it every day, try to show that I deserve to continue and hopefully it will be many years, because it will mean that things are going well ”, he added.
And come prepared. “I am 33 years old. I can’t change that. But I take care of myself since I started playing football to be as well prepared as possible, to recover as much as possible and in the end it’s a matter of how you prepare to be physically and mentally. And here I come physically in full condition and mentally with a lot of illusion and ambition ”, he claimed.
“I don’t see it coming at a bad time. On the contrary, with this experience that I have had in other countries competing at the highest level, I think it comes at a very good moment, and now we have to show it on the pitch”, stressed the Spanish international on 43 occasions, who offers options as a winger and as center
“I am a player who has never required any coach to play in any position. In this case it is the same. I come to the club to help as much as I can with my experience, to help achieve the goals. Every time I have played in different positions, I have taken it as a new challenge and a chance to keep improving”, he explained.
“Until the last day of your football career you can continue learning and I think that, in this case, Atleti, with all that it means, with the connection with the fans, with the coach, with a consolidated group of several years and young players who are coming, try to achieve the objectives, which is what we have come for”, he remarked.
“We will fight for everything, of course”
The Champions League is the sleeplessness of Atlético. He has already won one. “A little too soon for that question,” he answered when he was questioned about the hypothetical achievement of the title of the highest European competition with the rojiblanco team, as he already did in 2021 with Chelsea, with whom he also lifted the trophy as team captain.
“You always have to go for the maximum. I have learned it in my career. You can never set limits. It would be absurd to say here that we are happy with reaching the round of 16, because it is not like that. Of course, winning the Champions League as a personal experience is one of the greatest achievements and hopefully we can be talking ten months from now that it has been achieved, but you have to go game by game, ”he warned.
“In the end, it’s useless to be watching you in the Champions League final and we haven’t even gotten the first three points in the group. Sometimes it is small details that make you achieve one result or another. We will fight for everything, of course,” Azpilicueta proclaimed.
He was also asked about the change of shield by means of a referendum of Atlético de Madrid. “I just arrived at the club. I wouldn’t want to comment too much on it. The fans and great legends of the club have been in favor of the shield and the fact that the club has listened to fans and legends to make it possible makes it a special club. If the fans and the people of the club wanted it, great, ”he said.
Cerezo: “We must congratulate the sports management for winning Azpilicueta”
Enrique Cerezo, president of Atlético de Madrid, “congratulated” the sports management of the rojiblanco club “for achieving” that César Azpilicueta “join” the team, while highlighting the “leadership, experience, commitment, pride and the heart” of the Navarrese defender during his presentation in the auditorium of the Cívitas Metropolitano stadium.
“With great satisfaction, we received today in the stadium of all the athletics a footballer who has achieved international feats and has deservedly earned European and world recognition for his entire professional career,” the manager introduced him.