Axel Torres Xirau (Barcelona, \u200b\u200b1983) is one of the journalists leading specialists in international football. Today is the "visible head" of the "Marker International" Radio Marca, which airs Saturday afternoons, from 14:00. In addition, the program runs in Goltara "Axel Metro" (the name has a blog on the web Marca.com) and presents "MundoGol Club." Unlike many journalists who hide their colors, Axel is declared follower of Sabadell, equipment the city where he grew up.
1 - We are seeing lightning and surprise teams early season as a priori modest Mainz or Cesena. What is your opinion of this equipment? Does he could foresee and do you think may maintain this level throughout the season?
No, I could not be foreseen, and that the logical thing would be falling over time. The element of surprise and great tactical organization (I speak especially of Mainz, who have seen more) may help explain this phenomenon, but its workforce, in terms of potential, is lower than many teams to championships. In the long run the surprises tend to decrease.
2 - Last year you put as a favorite for the UEFA Champions League Inter Milan, I at least I did not believe in your prediction, the time gave you the reason. Did you see it so clear from the beginning? This years have opted for FC Barcelona. Do you see it as clearly as last year? Do not you think both the Mourinho effect as most people?
Well, I do not see him very clear in no time. You can not have absolute certainty about a champion of a tournament that runs for qualifying, because the random factor, the factor moment of inspiration ... have much impact and are uncontrollable. Yes you can analyze what teams look strong or very strong, but then guides you rather by something like intuition. I bet Mourinho for Inter by the winner of its technical nature. I did not know who would win, but thought it would be there. This year I bet by the club because I think it will be especially motivated to this tournament (anti-Mourinho rematch after losing in the semi-final at Wembley), because I think that Villa has even more resources in attack and it may be early for Madrid Mourinho in Europe. By Mou Madrid bet for 2011/2012. Today. Then the market and circumstances might make me change.
Well, I do not see him very clear in no time. You can not have absolute certainty about a champion of a tournament that runs for qualifying, because the random factor, the factor moment of inspiration ... have much impact and are uncontrollable. Yes you can analyze what teams look strong or very strong, but then guides you rather by something like intuition. I bet Mourinho for Inter by the winner of its technical nature. I did not know who would win, but thought it would be there. This year I bet by the club because I think it will be especially motivated to this tournament (anti-Mourinho rematch after losing in the semi-final at Wembley), because I think that Villa has even more resources in attack and it may be early for Madrid Mourinho in Europe. By Mou Madrid bet for 2011/2012. Today. Then the market and circumstances might make me change.
3. What interview a character in football, whether player, coach or manager, you have scored more, and why?
guess that you are the first ones you make. When you're 21, you call your phone Alexander Frei Swiss uncle gave you the website of Servette two years ago and do not know if you keep being in Rennes, you answer, you agree to be interviewed on your lousy second-year French the Alliance Française and the conversation you find interesting, I guess I enjoy it more than when you've done several. But I enjoy all those in which respondents are open, you have things that have to do with his understanding of life ... Overall I love interviewing people who have had experiences different from mine and who wants to count.
4. We are a group of friends he has met through Facebook IM, do you think the world of social networks attract more people to come together to create new posts related to football? Is it a suitable tool for this?
suppose that social networks are like life. Or a reflection of life. Meet people who love you, the other not, etc ... But it facilitates contact between people who probably never be found. I myself have met a lot of people on social networks. A Sergio Santomé, without going away, now is a partner of the program, I met via Twitter. And before all that existed, Rodrigo Marciel knew him for his blog, and Pablo Fernández Longoria in a web forum on television. I myself got into this world via e-mail. It is clear that the Internet has given me more satisfaction than nightmares.
5. On occasion you said you've always wanted to be a sports journalist, and made chronic small parties and you were recording by radio. Did you ever think it was impossible to get to where you got?
I could not get to think because I started very soon, no time to get frustrated. But remember the weeks prior to start all this. She was seventeen and a need to communicate almost haunted me. I remember one day while I showered I put on a term, a challenge. I said something like "half a year if you're not doing anything in journalism will be sunk." Was in a hurry, yes. I went to school to speak only on the street, by simulating different voices talk show radio program. The mothers of my classmates said among them that I was crazy. The need to do journalism, communicating, reaching limits unexpected. I was really interested only begun to go out at night or go clubbing.
6. Recently in Marca.com said he had not seen the Santiago Bernabeu football until the day of the final of the Champions' 09. Is there more stages of First Division clubs or major 2 nd you do not know? If so, which? And in the world, what cities / stadiums are on your visit list? And what are the foreign stage one you liked?
There are plenty of stadiums that do not know. The specificity of my work has made almost all football has seen on television. Even I have to go to major tournaments (Euro, World Cup) without visiting any stage, commenting on everything from the screens of the VBI. "The ones I have had an impact? I guess Celtic Park and Highbury. What we're trying to go? A lot, everybody. I fall rush when I know I will be breaking down. Now, for example, I'm excited to visit San Mames.
7. If you were offered the position of "technical secretary" of a club, what areas of the world you want to visit to find new young pearl? Why?
not rule out any area. "Talent can arise anywhere," he once read Victor Orta, and I think that is true. Probably, if the club I work had financial limitations, I focus on under-exploited areas, areas where players could get a transfer price is not too expensive and that talent would not yet detected. Difficult, of course, because everyone looks the same.
8. Are you or have you been using a game "Manager" of circulating in the market for PC games or any other console?
Only PC Football. When you could start playing with Segunda B clubs, leagues, English, foreign, etc ... I became obsessed with him. My computer could not run because I had enough RAM, so I came to beg my parents to buy one again just for the game. I got to tell my mother: "This game seems to have done on purpose to someone like me I can not not have it."
9. What has been your most time watching football matches lasted a row (in one day)? How much ha sido el tiempo que has estado más desconectado del fútbol?
Pues cualquier sábado de esos en los que el fútbol empieza a las 13:45 en Inglaterra y se va encadenando hacia más allá de medianoche. Piensa que durante varios años trabajé desde mi casa conectado por RDSI con un programa de radio de más de seis horas de duración. Me pasaba la tarde sentado en la misma silla, delante de un ordenador y dos televisores, siempre con fútbol en directo puesto. ¿El mayor periodo de desconexión? Pues cualquier verano de esos en los que me he ido a viajar por el mundo durante casi un mes. Me metía en internet para leer noticias (me enteré the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo for Manchester United in Amsterdam, in a cyber between Vondelpark and Dam Square), but saw no matches.
10. What is the party that once more because you missed and never forget?
Several times. In 1993 I missed the Champions League final Milan-Marseille because we were camping with the school and forced us to dinner during the game. There was a TV away in the background, but I was back and just saw the replay of the goal. During the game, I liked the girl winked at me, which made me quite nervous estarme not only losing the game of the year. It was the closest I came to pick her up. A year later, in the 1994 World Cup, I asked my mother woke me at dawn to watch the Sweden-Brazil semifinal. I'd become a fan of Sweden and imitated the goal celebrations of Kenneth Anderson. Did not remember waking up the next day did not stop to mourn. He was convinced that Sweden had lost because I did not see the game. For comfort, I bought the shirt of Sweden, the first international football I ever had. Beyond these childhood traumas, now I get lost very often matches my team, Sabadell. See in Sabadell, near to radio the activity that stimulates me in the world. Therefore, every game that I miss is a frustration. It's a sacrifice I have to do to devote to the profession that I love.
11. Between the leagues do "little" known to the public, which four teams and four players point up, and why?
should be defining what the "little known to the public" because people increasingly consumes more international soccer. This question was easy when Modric playing for Dinamo Zagreb and Ivanovic Lokomotiv Moscow. A boat soon: Xherdan Shaqiri (Basel), Yasin Pehlivan (Rapid Vienna), Shoki Hirai (Gamba Osaka), Oussama Darragi (Esperance Tunis). "Equipment? Shakhtar Donetsk (although the team itself is known for his constant presence in Champions), Basel, Al Ahly Cairo (more for the period 2004-2008, which for the past two years, in which I have not seen so much), Alliance Lima (for freedom 2010, impressive how he played, only a controversial refereeing decision could take him down). Elections boat soon, I insist. I'm sure I left some better.
12. Did you ever dream of being a footballer? Played de pequeño en algún equipo?
Por supuesto. Creo que todos lo hemos soñado, ¿no? Yo quería ser jugador del Sabadell. Jugaba de portero. Me apunté a su escuela de fútbol, aunque tuve muy pocas oportunidades en el equipo principal del fútbol base. Hice una pretemporada con ellos y fui convocado a un partido de liga por lesión del titular –jugué veinte minutos, no me marcaron ningún gol-. Luego me cedieron a un equipo de barrio, el Lepanto. Éramos cadetes, yo tenía 15-16 años. Nuestro equipo era el único del club que no estaba en la categoría más baja. Mantenernos era una prioridad para toda la directiva, para all the fans. Seems to laugh, but I felt the pressure. I take football so seriously that I learned many things. Yes, we were a team playing at a tiny tiny, but I stayed with many concepts of leadership, commitment, mood, etc ... my training was basic. After every game he wrote a chronicle in a book, rated the co-and myself-etc ... At the end of the year analyzed who had played more minutes, which onces had repeated more times ... I think the team studied more than himself coach. I retired in the first year of youth, when finally I realized that I had no pressure conditions and that I could. Yes, the pressure of failing peers.
13. Now it is fashionable Nigel De Jong for this extremely hard on your entries, remember another player that was equal to or harder for them? What is your opinion of the decision of the players from the Netherlands, to ask the coach will not convene?
think that De Jong is stigmatized for having done so cumbersome that entry in the prime party a period of four years worldwide. If before the game I had asked if it was a violent player, probably would not have said yes. I think that when passing a reasonable time to summon him again, no problem. "Harder than him? Materazzi, Lopez, Thomas ...
14. How many satellite dishes you have in your home to watch games all over the world?
in my house now I have only one unit Digital Plus and one of Imagenio (with Gol TV, Eurosport 2 ...). I subscribe to the website of the Asian confederation for J-League and Champions League of Asia, too. I do not get more because I have no time to watch everything I record. At home my parents had two Digital Plus decoders, Gol TV, and a motorized dish.
15. What are the 5 most "geeks" (to call them that) you've seen work?
would guess that all of the sub-17 Cup. Those of Guadalupe in the Gold Cup in which they came would stay far away either.
16. Do you think the English team now is the best selection of history (according to some other journalists)? If not, what has been or is the best and why?
I dare not ever with historical judgments times I did not live. Today is so extensive that I have not had time to review in depth the past, so I can only express my views on my time. Since I see football, I have not seen any better selection.
17. Have you ever had a problem with any club for interviews with players for the International Marker? Or have you hit?
always try to contact the player or with your environment, it is often easier. Currently in charge of making these efforts our producer Sergio Hernández. I think I have not met anyone more brilliant in such efforts. Obviously, there have been some players that we wanted to interview and we could not.
18. What are the first games you remember (live, on TV and recorded for later
vision)? Does anyone who has "branded" your life?
Argentina-Cameroon 1990 World Cup opener. The first thing I saw in my entire life. It was played in the afternoon, my father recorded it and we sat on the couch at night the whole family to see. I liked the experience so much that I ended up watching all the whole championship matches, looking in one book scorers and classifications. I was seven. I have a memory of a game, I guess 1988, when my father took me to the field of Sabadell. I do not know against whom we played and how was the result. It made me forever, just wanted it to end. It is regrettable: my only memory of club of my life in the first division is that. I remember a Sabadell-Malaga in 1990 or 1991, and second, we saw on television. And the party that makes my maturity as a fan, the Sabadell-Figueres, 1993, after twice falling from second to a third. The first game that went into the country, I noticed the entire alignment memorized the positions of players, etc ... Since that day I became a regular on the Nova Creu Alta. Until the job made me stop being so.
19. Which of the inferior category U17, U19, U21 ... is your favorite? The one where you would like to find a new star.
Sub-17 course. For the first time you see them. All players are new. And yet are not professionals, but they are very close. The European Under-17 is one of my favorite quotes of the season.
20. What is your possession footballing geek? T any Vietnamese? A banner Armenian? ... And to that I have more appreciation? Sabadell T ", perhaps?
I have several to which I have a special affection for them. One of AEK Athens, size child, with 10 of Tsartas and his name written in Greek characters. A Aris Thessaloniki, alternate, officer, under the name of Javito. It cost me 70 euros but we had to buy it. One of Modric of Dinamo Zagreb, with the c pronounced. A revival of Galatasaray, falsísima bought in the Turkish market in Berlin. A sweatshirt FK Sarajevo. Panathinaikos a notebook given to me by a taxi driver because he knew who was Ninis. More appreciation? Sabadell T-shirts from my childhood.
21. What player came out in chrome that they'd changed the whole Repes your cue when you were a child?
Joan Barbara.
22. After the interview Mourinho received both praise as critical, what is learned of the latter? Do you like best work in radio or television?
I think after the interview with Mourinho received more praise than criticism, which surprised me because I was particularly tense, just released, very impressed by the character. Personally, I pay more attention to criticism than praise. I like to praise, but do not know how to react. Instead, each identified as a critical problem to solve. I know it's impossible to please everyone, but analyzed all the way if that criticism is justified, if it can be based logic and if I can do something to improve the defect states. Is a consequence of my temperament, well given the dissatisfaction. Journalism excited me as a whole and in all its expressions, and I am very happy to learn in one aspect, the television, which until 2008 had no experience, and to do so by people who are an institution the medium as José Joaquín Brotons. However, if you ask me to choose, I will say that radio is my favorite. Because she dreamed of since childhood. It was my first source of expression in this world. Because it has a closeness that is the essence of communicative exercise.
23. Do you have a role model as a sports journalist? An idol in your profession?
Like many people, but now I do not idolize anyone. I grew up reading the chronicles of the Diari de Sabadell of Pere Figueras, José María García listening to every night and thrilled with the stories of Alfredo Martínez. Tomas Diaz excited me as a commentator on the Premier League in Via Digital. And suddenly, at age seventeen, I discovered Edu García and was mesmerized. A few weeks later he returned to his program. I guess my training is a bit of all these influences to mention, but a lot of Edu in the design of what should be the radio: the tone, rhythm, time management, knowing when to go to the serious and when the program film is left to be a bit frivolous, naturalness, devotion to the listener ... For many years, I worked with Tom while idolizing. I think I've passed that stage, but I would say that now I admire him more. I admire him from maturity, because I realize how it has influenced me, all the good things given to me, knew how to manage my development to follow a balanced course. If we now do every Saturday radio program of my dreams, thanks to him.
