Real Mallorca forward Vedat Muriqi and Manager Javier Aguirre have both been embraced to the very heart of the Bermellon support, and the two go hand-in-hand these days as well. After a tough start to the season, for club, manager and forward, the giant Kosovan revealed the kind of help that Aguirre gives his players.
Last season Muriqi was the central figure for the Islanders, scoring 15 goals and providing 3 assists as he led them to a top half finish for the first time in close to a decade.
Just four games into this season, Mallorca were winless, Muriqi was goalless, and the veteran striker had also missed two penalties. He revealed Aguirre’s approach to the matter.
“Aguirre is like a father in the locker room. He is good one-on-one and he is always very clear, if you don’t understand him, the problem is yours,” Muriqi told SER Deportivos, as carried by ED.
“When you have problems, like mine with the second missed penalty. I remember that when At the end of the training session after that match, Aguirre approached the kit man and asked him to give him two balls and I thought ‘now Aguirre is going to teach me how to take penalties or something’ and nothing of the sort, he told me ‘sit down”‘. We sat down on top of the balls and we started talking about everything: family, politics, Spain, Kosovo, Mexico… We were like this for 25 minutes and in the end, he just told me that he had his trust until the end, no matter what happens.”
The endearing Mexican is strong in his convictions, but sprinkles his management with humour and a self-effacing attitude that is rare amongst most coaches. Since those two missed penalties, Muriqi has scored four goals in his last four matches, with an assist to go with it. Mallorca still have just one win, but were only beaten by Girona and took points off Barcelona, who form two of the top three.
