JULEN LOPETEGUI HAS said that the day he was sacked as Spain coach was the ‘saddest’ since the death of his mother as he was officially unveiled as Real Madrid’s new manager.
“Yesterday was the saddest day of my life since the death of my mother. But today is the happiest day of my life,” Lopetegui said as he fought back tears.
“We are convinced that we acted in an absolutely honest and clear way.”
Spain’s World Cup preparations were thrown into turmoil on Wednesday as the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) sacked Lopetegui after Real Madrid confirmed he would take over at the Bernabeu for next three seasons.
Spain players reportedly resisted his sacking, which came as Spain are due to face European champions Portugal in Sochi on Friday before taking on Iran and Morocco in Group B of the tournament.
Lopetegui, 51, said he wished federation chief Luis Rubiales “had handled things in another way.”
There were fears Lopetegui’s appointment by the European champions could open up old divisions between the Real Madrid and Barcelona factions in the Spain squad.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez called the Spanish football federation’s reaction to the club’s signing of Lopetegui “disproportionate, unfair and without precedent in the world of football in similar cases.
Perez also lashed out at what he called “an absurd reaction of misplaced pride” on the part of Rubiales.
The federation named Fernando Hierro, 50, as an emergency replacement at the World Cup despite having only one season’s managerial experience in the Spanish second division with Real Oviedo.
He was popular among the players as the federation’s sporting director between 2007 and 2011, and returned to that role in November of last year.
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Well done Sir.
You are a credit to your parents and show people that though they can suffer depression that they can still manage it. Your laying it out straight. Great meas in you.
Nice one. Great to see someone like this talk about these problems
Who are the bottom feeding monkey shite who neg a comment like this?
I just gave my last comment the thumbs up….s’nice
Fair play to Alan coming out and talking about depression. A brave thing to do for such a high profile figure
@James – Regarding the thumbs down, i read a post recently where someone said they didn’t mean to ‘thumb down’ a comment, but the problem was that they were viewing the Journal on a smartphone and they would press the thumbs down by accident when they were scrolling through the comments.
At least i hope that’s the case for Emsy’s post :-)
Well done Quinny! For a player who’s nickname was cheeky and to to survive for so long in a career that’s perceived to be “macho” it’s an even bigger credit to you for speaking out. Hopefully it’ll make life easier for others to do the same.
Great stuff. Each day is an opportunity for “self help” or “self pity” the decision comes slowly to those with depression. Thankfully by talking about it people turn a huge corner and help others. Well done.
Another great sportsman hitting his depression head on, depression is of biblical proportions in this country and only now are we talking about it, the reasons why people hid it in the first place in actual fact was because they really did not know what they had…. Nothing to be ashamed of. I am 44 , ex soldier, hard as nails ( well not really) been suffering for 7 years , no meds at the moment as I have an underlying problem… But hey bad days are bad, good days are few but help is coming soon.
Well done Alan . I hope the media give it huge coverage especially in the sports pages as alot of the time they are the only pages young people read and they do need to understand more than anything else that depression is nothing to be ashamed of or fear . Sadly our graveyards are full of young men who were to afraid to seek help
Great post Jerry, well said
If Quinny saves one person from years of depression and missed positive experiences what a man he is and deserves all life can bring him keep it up lad : )
Great to see sufferers open up and talk so frankly about it. As someone who suffers from depression, I take great comfort in watching someone get it out in the open. Depression comes in many forms and at different levels of severity.
Stereotypically we think of sufferers locked away in a dark room, crying and drinking heavily, listening to Morrissey. In reality, it’s very different. Reason , logic and rational thinking are thrown out the window and instead you are bombarded with negative thoughts, that you believe. Men are much more likely to suffer as we think that looking for help is a weakness, and that we can do it by ourselves. We can’t.
The road to recovery isn’t as daunting as you may think. Pick up the phone and talk to someone.