Former Real Madrid captain Nacho Fernandez has revealed that despite the intense media coverage, the public never found out about the largest incidents. Manager Carlo Ancelotti has also praised the dressing room atmosphere as ‘the best he has had’ on multiple occasions.
Now at Al-Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia, Nacho left Los Blancos on top, lifting the league and Champions League titles as captain, before winning Euro 2024 with Spain. It was his only his second year as captain. Nacho explained to Relevo that he rarely had to deal with major issues.
“None, because Real Madrid is an easy club to handle, it’s a pleasure to work with all the people we have in there. It is impressive, the club, just as it is good on the pitch and competing in games, is good internally. All the people help the players on a daily basis.”
“Then my relationship with the club has always been good, there has always been a lot of ease. And the group of players that I have had to lead has been very easy. With a very good atmosphere. They have made it as easy as possible to be captain.”
He was also asked about how tricky it is to keep stories from leaving the dressing room and entering into the press.
“That’s the difficult part. In the end, in a dressing room we keep secrets… We are 25 players, then there are many people around who work with us, then those a little further away, they also find out many things. There are many of us and it is a very big club, everyone knows each other.”
“Maybe a simple comment that we don’t want to come out of the dressing room comes out. We would love for everything not to come out, but I believe that the most important things have never ended up coming out,” Nacho commented.
Certainly it has been notable the contrast between Barcelona and Real Madrid in recent years, where Los Blancos are constantly in the headlines, but rarely for much more than what happens on the pitch. Meanwhile Barcelona, and in part due to matters that are not to do with the players too, have been a production line of stories in recent years.