Jesé: “Ancelotti had the balls to put me before Bale”

On board, his Lamborghini Urus Mansory Venatus, the new Jesé Rodríguez (“I feel better than I did at Madrid”) looks back on a career that had a promising start and was brimming with expectations and which he is now trying to rescue at Malaysian Johor Darul, the tenth team on his resume and who knows if the last bullet. Away from the classic interviews and journalists, of which he does not claim not to be a good friend, the Canarian, who warns that he has not said “his last word in football” opens up with the yYouTuber’Mowlihawk’ on his program ‘Batmowli’.

Childhood idol: “At that time, and not because he was at Barcelona, ​​I liked Ronaldinho. The magic, the quality, the technique… I sat down to watch him and it was like someone who goes to the theatre and sees a show. I imitated him until I met Cristiano. That was when I was at Sporting de Portugal. When I was at Manchester, I was already following him.”

 

When I was little, Madrid or Barcelona?: “Always Madrid.”

Promotion to the first team at Madrid  “I only spent two years at Castilla. I made my debut at 16, finished that season, stand started the next one, in 2ºB, we went up to Segunda. They were going to promote me, but Floren (Florentino Pérez) said: ‘Let him play another year in Segunda because he’s almost a professional’. And the following year I was in the first team. In Segunda, I surpassed Butragueño’s goal record. He had scored 21 goals and I scored 22. The following year I was in Las Palmas and Karanka, who was second under Mourinho and with whom I got on very well, called me to ask me if I was ready to go to the pre-season. Mourinho had just arrived and Karanka told him: ‘We have to take this guy.’ I scored a goal with my chest in China after a cross from Di María with a rabona and that same year, at 18, I made my debut against Real. Cristiano left and I came in. “At that moment I wanted to take on the world.”

Mourinho on his debut with the first team: “He is a great coach. Smart and strategic. You can see that he is very streetwise. But he clashed with some players because he had a lot of character. I have had a couple of arguments, but in a player-coach way, without being disrespectful. I was controversial, but he is a good guy. He helped me improve a lot.”

 

Best moment at Madrid  “I had the feeling of saying ‘I’m going to play and this guy isn’t going to play’ before the injury. I was playing and Bale wasn’t playing. HeItost 120 million euros and I left for free. He spoke very little and in English. Ancelotti had the balls to put him on the bench and put me in. Another coach might not do that. Florentino liked the youth players to solve his games because he ended up saying: ‘I’ve bet on them’.”

 

Personal relationship and sporting competence with Bale: “When he arrived he said he wanted to play on the left. Cristiano found out, and then, with Ancelotti and Florentino they said to him: ‘You, on the right’. And I was laughing behind him. But there was no bickering between us. There were long faces, but what can he say to me if he doesn’t know how to speak.?At Madrid, they were all very professional.”

Comparison with Cristiano Ronaldo: We indeed had similar aspects, but the press hyped him up a lot. For me, he was like a mirror, and I had him at home. I wanted to win what he had already won. He was very impressive because of his seriousness and professionalism. Sometimes he would say to us, ‘Let’s go to dinner with Sergio (Ramos).’ I met him when he was still a youth player, taking a cold shower. When I went up to the first team, he remembered that.”

 

Professionalism: “There were a lot of people who took a lot of shittoo to perform. That wasn’t as controlled before as it is now. I’m not criticizing or judging anyone, but that’s how it was. The thing is that maybe it didn’t come out publicly.”

Knee injury, a before and after: “Over time I realized that that day changed my life forever. It was one of the worst days of my life. Before that, I felt I was in the best moment of my career. I knew that if I kept up that pace I could challenge anyone. I was young and I was doing very well at the best club in the world, with the greatest pressure. Florentino took me to the best surgeon in Germany. But when I had the infection and they had to clean me twice, I said: ‘It’s over’. When I started to feel better in my last year with Madrid, the League was over.”

 

The phrase Inn four years I dream of winning the Ballon d’Or”: “I was very young, I saw myself as too strong and I am very sincere. I wouldn’t change it, but yes, maybe I could have said: ‘I think that if I continue like this I can be on the path to winning a Ballon d’Or. Cristiano brought me the Ballon d’Or when I had won it and let me take a photo with it. He said to me: ‘Are you going to win it? ‘, and I said: ‘Yes’. He replied: ‘That is the attitude’”.

Bad experience at PSG: “If I had wanted to, I would have stayed at Madrid, but the PSG option came up. As I wasn’t getting many minutes, I thought about going to Paris because I was going to play and get minutes. On top of that, Emery was the coach, who called me. Madrid made a lot of signings and I wanted to go to the Euros with the national team because I was close to going to the World Cup in Brazil. Del Bosque was going to take me, but I got injured. In addition, they improved my contract and paid me a lot more. And look, at Madrid, where we were paid every six months, they paid very well. I earned a little less than five million euros gross. The first time I saw a million in the account I said: ‘Wow, is this for scoring goals?’. At PSG I made my debut by giving the assist for the winning goal in the first game, but then I was out for two months with appendicitis and in winter they told me I had to leave. I told Emery that I felt cheated. The president (Nasser Al Khelaïfi) didn’t want to see me at all. I don’t know if he liked my wife more than me. They didn’t give me any explanation. You could earn a lot but they treated me very badly. That’s when I realized Madrid is the best in the world in everything. I felt like I was dealing with a guy who is a billionaire and uses the players as if they were badges.”

 

Friendship with Mbappé: “There wasn’t that much difference with the feelings I had when I trained with Cristiano. They were both the same, they scored goals in every training session. They both have their different talents, but it was already clear that Mbappé was going to be a star. I had a couple of conversations with him before I left. He asked me what Real Madrid was like as a club and I told him that it was the best club in the world and that if he wanted to win the Ballon d’Or he should sign for Madrid. But now we’ll see who wins it between Vinicius and him. Madrid is preparing a team to dominate La Liga for years to come.”

 

Current status  “My head is better than when I was in Madrid. But you need to play.”

Foray into the music industry: “I was one of the first footballers to make music and put it out there. Because others do it and then don’t release it. I make music because I’ve always liked music since I was little. My talent came from football and music remained a hobby. But if I’m good at it, why not do it? Marcelo, Cristiano, and Ramos encouraged me to go public. They said to me: ‘You have to put this out there. ’ Also, Benzema used to come to my house to listen to my songs in the studio. One time we made a song with a French rapper. When I was injured, music was my escape.”

Best friends in football: “Omar Mascarell, from the Canary Islands and with whom I grew up in the Madrid youth academy, and Sergio Ramos, who has an incredible heart.”