Caste comes to the greyhound, no doubt. Pepe Reina, son of the great goalkeeper Miguel Reina, says goodbye with 42 years, 26 seasons in football and a smile on the face. He was a happy, competitive and professional goalkeeper, capable of playing in the four major leagues in Europe in an almost unmatched trajectory. going through Villarreal, Liverpool, Naples, Bayern, Aston Villa, Milan and Lazio. Goalkeeper and soul of the world champion team in 2010 and in Europe in 2008 and 2012, Reina had as the first captain Pep Guardiola, shared seasons with Steven Gerrard, Torres or Xabi Alonso in a large Liverpool, became the leader of the Naples, won the Bundesliga in the Bayern with the PEP of coach, remained fine in Milan and Laz Villarreal and end his career in his former Cesc, surrounded by young companions.
Now says goodbye. In a Movistar+interview, entitled ‘Pepe Reina has something to tell’, the Madrid announced: “A very beautiful race is over, a very complete life, I feel very lucky about what I have lived, it has been many years … I did not expect it, but I think the time has come and I feel like closing it here.” The goalkeeper will remain linked to football as a coach at Villarreal, who offered his former soccer player to take the reins of the youth A.
Young, with only 18 years, coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer gave him the opportunity to debut in Barcelona. The son, Barcelona and Atlético in the sixties, seventy and eighty of the last century, made the leap to professionalism after Carles Rexach took him to the Catalan quarry, where he forged a beautiful competition with Víctor Valdés. Since that December 2, 2000 in a duel against Celta, Queen’s career has been prodigious, for her longevity and for her depth. After his initial passage through a Barcelona in full transition process with Sergi, Rivaldo, Luis Enrique or Guardiola, Reina spent three seasons in Villarreal, where he found a formidable costumes and was forged as a guarantee goalkeeper. “We were very young, we were together all day and we had a great time,” he remembered this newspaper.
In the summer of 2005, he knocks on his door. In the historic English team, football lives in its purest state and hallucin with professionals such as Finnish Hyypia, from which he learns rigor in work, effort and diet as keys to having a long career. The West Ham wins in 2006, the Champions League plays regularly and its consolidation is so important that Luis Aragonés, his father’s partner in Atlético, calls him for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
His chapter in the Spanish team is written with letters from another, as his assignment in the Naples of Rafael Benítez in the 2013-14 academic year, where the Italian Cup wins and discovers a new football. In the summer of 2014 he returns to his origins to leave his beloved Liverpool, where coach Brendan Rodgers did not have him, to work with. He could have run out of Liverpool, but preferred to try in a league as organized as the Bundesliga, and, incidentally, win it under the orders of the Catalan coach. He terminated contract with Bayern to return to Naples, where he felt very dear. In Italy he settles his career to play in Milan and Lazio with a brief parenthesis in Aston Villa.
Two campaigns at Villarreal, where he now returns to train the youth team, and one last in the Cesc of coach, culminated his impressive career in some of the best clubs in the world. , the FA Cup, the Cup of the League and the Super Cup of England, the Italy Cup and the European Super Cup with the Liverpool.
He had already left for history to be the first Spanish footballer to play in the four major leagues (Spain, England, Germany and Italy) and, incidentally, a very special stamp in the Spanish team. He was the perfect alternate goalkeeper and soul of the winning group of the World Cup in 2010 and the Eurocups of 2008 and 2012. Almost always next to Iker Casillas, also with Víctor Valdés and even Cañizares in 2006, Andrés Palop in 2008 and Gea in 2018. 36 times international, for the story will be his advice to boxes in the quarterfinals of the World Cup in South Africa against Paraguay, when he told his partner. Penalti Cardozo. and Spain got into the semifinals.
And of course his masterful direction will go down in the celebrations of the titles of the Spanish team. Reina went to four World Cups with Spain (2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018) and two Eurocups (2008 and 2012). Luis Aragonés, Vicente del Bosque, Julen Lopetegui and Fernando Hierro were the selectors who had the good work and the experience of Reina, who maintained a very special relationship with Ochotorena, goalkeeper coach of the Spanish team and Liverpool, and former Madrid and Valencia.
The passage of time is inexorable. After the goodbye of the goalkeeper, only six world champions are active in South Africa. These are the cases of, Sergio Busquets, Javi Martínez, Juan Mata and Pedro. Father of five children and very familiar, of Pepe Reina also knows his great friendship with David Villa and his summers in Ibiza. Now he begins his career as a coach. It is already history, and important, of Spanish football.
