Sergio Asenjo: “I’m really excited about returning and want to do things well”
“I’m happy here and I’d like to get more chances”
Sergio Asenjo was the player in charge of attending to the media after Tuesday’s training at the Majadahonda Sports Complex. The ‘rojiblanco’ goalkeeper was happy to be back working with the group after having received medical clearance. Before getting started, he wanted to thank everyone who has helped him in his recovery. “To begin I’d like to thank Oscar Pitillas Esteban, Jesús, Gorka, the entire medical staff, Doctor Villalón and Doctor Guillén, who operated on me, and I’d like to thank everybody because they spent many hours and days helping me get back. It’s been a long time but here I am, I’m young and I’m really excited and looking forward to recovering. It’s been tough but you can come back from everything.”
In assessing and saying what the worst thing to happen to him in these months of recovery, the keeper said that “the first day when the doctor told me that it might be a tear, I felt like I was going to break down. You fall to pieces because the first week is hard because I had lots of thing planned and everything vanished, but I’m very young, 21 years-old, and looking forward to moving forward and hoping that football gives me more opportunities.”
He was asked if when he said that many things vanished he was talking about moving to another team. “I hadn’t made any arrangements with any other team. I’m very happy here, I have a big contract and the circumstances are what they are. Right now I’m coming back excited and a strong desire to do things well and try to take advantage of those small opportunities that I get.”
With respect to whether he wants to continue to succeed at Atlético de Madrid he was categorical. “I’ve never stopped feeling like a First Division goalkeeper. I’ve been playing in the First Division for four seasons and, if I recall correctly, I’ve played in around 80 matches and at age 21 that’s not bad. This year hasn’t been as good as I wanted, but you have good and bad years and now I’ve had to experience a bad one. From now on I’m going to try and make sure that everything goes well for me.”
However he has no doubts at all that the injury has made him stronger. “Of course. My philosophy is that every cloud has a silver lining. If this has happened to me, it’s because it had to. My body and my mind needed one of these things to think things over and know that in life not everything goes as you want it to. Now I’m a completely different person and from here on I hope to get back to feeling like a goalkeeper again soon.”
He hasn’t spoken much with Quique Sánchez Flores after rejoining the group. “I rejoined the group 10 days ago and he welcomed me back. Now it’s time to work.”
Concerning when he might be able to return to competition, the goalie stated that “I feel really good and I received clearance from the medical staff and with that you’re ready to be called up onto the roster. It doesn’t depend on me. The manager will see how I’m doing and from there he’ll have to choose two goalkeepers and, little-by-little, I’ll have to show him that I’m at one-hundred percent.”
He acknowledged that he hasn’t thought about whether he might leave during the winter signing period. “There’s plenty of time until the winter market. I’ll try to make sure that my knee is perfect and as of today there hasn’t been any kind of problems. I’m happy here, content, and I’d like to get other chances, but that doesn’t depend on me. It depends on the Club wanting to transfer me or not. I’m an Atlético de Madrid player and I can’t say anything else.”
To finish, Asenjo made it very clear that during all this time he’s felt “supported by everyone. My teammates have shown me an incredible amount of affection and I think that you need that in situations like these. Unfortunately one of my teammates got injured at almost the same time the two of us have really been supporting each other and the amazing work of Oscar Pitillas, who brought smiles out of us every day, was very important to us.”
In assessing and saying what the worst thing to happen to him in these months of recovery, the keeper said that “the first day when the doctor told me that it might be a tear, I felt like I was going to break down. You fall to pieces because the first week is hard because I had lots of thing planned and everything vanished, but I’m very young, 21 years-old, and looking forward to moving forward and hoping that football gives me more opportunities.”
He was asked if when he said that many things vanished he was talking about moving to another team. “I hadn’t made any arrangements with any other team. I’m very happy here, I have a big contract and the circumstances are what they are. Right now I’m coming back excited and a strong desire to do things well and try to take advantage of those small opportunities that I get.”
With respect to whether he wants to continue to succeed at Atlético de Madrid he was categorical. “I’ve never stopped feeling like a First Division goalkeeper. I’ve been playing in the First Division for four seasons and, if I recall correctly, I’ve played in around 80 matches and at age 21 that’s not bad. This year hasn’t been as good as I wanted, but you have good and bad years and now I’ve had to experience a bad one. From now on I’m going to try and make sure that everything goes well for me.”
However he has no doubts at all that the injury has made him stronger. “Of course. My philosophy is that every cloud has a silver lining. If this has happened to me, it’s because it had to. My body and my mind needed one of these things to think things over and know that in life not everything goes as you want it to. Now I’m a completely different person and from here on I hope to get back to feeling like a goalkeeper again soon.”
He hasn’t spoken much with Quique Sánchez Flores after rejoining the group. “I rejoined the group 10 days ago and he welcomed me back. Now it’s time to work.”
Concerning when he might be able to return to competition, the goalie stated that “I feel really good and I received clearance from the medical staff and with that you’re ready to be called up onto the roster. It doesn’t depend on me. The manager will see how I’m doing and from there he’ll have to choose two goalkeepers and, little-by-little, I’ll have to show him that I’m at one-hundred percent.”
He acknowledged that he hasn’t thought about whether he might leave during the winter signing period. “There’s plenty of time until the winter market. I’ll try to make sure that my knee is perfect and as of today there hasn’t been any kind of problems. I’m happy here, content, and I’d like to get other chances, but that doesn’t depend on me. It depends on the Club wanting to transfer me or not. I’m an Atlético de Madrid player and I can’t say anything else.”
To finish, Asenjo made it very clear that during all this time he’s felt “supported by everyone. My teammates have shown me an incredible amount of affection and I think that you need that in situations like these. Unfortunately one of my teammates got injured at almost the same time the two of us have really been supporting each other and the amazing work of Oscar Pitillas, who brought smiles out of us every day, was very important to us.”
