An interview with Victor Valdes has been released in which the goalkeeper speaks of his regret at how his Barcelona career ended.
Valdes was in June speaking to Colombia’s RCN and discussed his departure from Camp Nou in 2014, the serious knee injury he suffered months before, and whether or not he would even be a goalkeeper if he could have his career over again.
“Because of the treatment I was having in Germany and because of my character, my exit didn’t go as I wanted. I drifted away and left,” he said, AS reports.
“People probably expected much more from someone like me. I have recriminations about this attitude, this part of my personality.
“I would change a lot of things. The only way to change things you’re unhappy with is to be reborn. I wouldn’t be a goalkeeper. It’s not an easy road and the times I’ve done well haven’t made up for the times I’ve suffered. There are days you don’t want to be there.
“It was work, work, work and whatever happened in the end, I reached the top, but if we’re talking about football, I can speak of thousands of moments of suffering.”
Valdes recalled the injury he suffered against Celta Vigo in March 2014, and revealed he thought about how things might have been different.
“The damn play starts with a penalty given against us. As captain I protest. The referee then signals a free-kick. That’s where my life changed,” he recounted.
“If it had been a penalty I wouldn’t have been injured.
“The injury made me experience life not as a footballer. Players live a surreal life. I had real life again, paying for coffee, playing coins…[thinking] I’ll never again be a football star. Football was separate.”
