Girona's most multicultural footballer: "He cleaned the boots of the veteran players."

GironaA few days ago, ARA asked to interview Axel Witsel. "I have a meeting at the children's school, sorry. Can we leave it for next week?" he replied via WhatsApp. It's just that first thing, first things first. "Now everything is more or less in place," he confesses from the Girona Football Academy by PUMA, hours before the red and white team's visit to Vigo this Sunday. These are hectic days at Witsel's. Opening boxes, going crazy trying to remember where certain things were, and making a ton of small decisions. Anyone who has moved before knows what we're talking about. "We already have a house and we've found a school for the kids. For me, family is key. And knowing that they're okay, my mind is okay too, so I can focus on football."

The little ones, of course, will be taught in Catalan. "Yes, yes, I'm sure they'll soon start talking about it; but there are many words that resemble languages I know. For example, the boy who came into the room said let, right? It's also called that in Portuguese. Since I speak quite a few, I try to relate it. Maybe I won't be able to give an entire press conference in Catalan, but I think I understand a lot of things," says the footballer, who is fluent in French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese and can say a bit of Russian. He's not as brave with Chinese, however. The mix comes from a long-distance background—he's played in Belgium, Portugal, and Russia—from his family—his father is from Martinique; his mother is Belgian; and his wife is Romanian with Hungarian ancestry. He's the most multicultural man in the Girona dressing room.

"The day I wake up with no desire and tell myself I have to come to training, as if it were an obligation, I'll retire and do something else. I still want to get up and play football. And I want to enjoy it, because this happens once in a lifetime. The years are on their side, but when you're 18, it doesn't make you 18 anymore, it doesn't make you any more, and yet it makes you 18 steps away from thirty." Football is "my passion," he defines; but it became a job many years ago. "Yes, it is; although there are more difficult jobs. Okay, there are sacrifices and an aspect that the public doesn't see, but we, the players, are lucky." Throughout his travels around the world, he hasn't had any problem being honest. He was honest when he made public that he had signed for Tianjin Quanjian for money (he went from earning around three million to eighteen, according to some reports), or with his constant commitment to combating racism.

The father, from bricklayer to politician

That's why when he says he feels lucky, he means it. "My father is now a politician (Thierry Witsel, of the Socialist Party and member of the Belgian Senate), but when I was a child, he was a bricklayer. He made the cement, built houses with his own hands. And we didn't live in a luxurious area. I grew up in Liège, in a neighborhood without any distinctions. Playing in the street, freely, always with a ball. Thierry never earned his living playing football, but he reached the Belgian First Division of futsal and even made his debut with the national team. "I had a great time then, and I didn't care about anything else. When I became a father, I fully understood what my family had done for me: without their desire to see me happy, I wouldn't be here talking to you," he explains.

He didn't forget the days when he used to clean the boots of the team's veterans. "It may seem stupid these days, but it was what we had before. When a young player came into the locker room, he'd take on certain tasks. I used to clean Sergio Conceiçao's (former Milan manager) boots. That's gone. There are so many people around the team that none of that stuff is done anymore," he says, with a smile. Now, they're usually the ones in charge of blasting the music inside the sanctuary. "Everything has changed, but that doesn't mean the youngsters don't try hard. It depends on each person's character and mentality. I've worked with Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland, and they were giving 1000%. And Bellingham was a minor."

Witsel arrives in Montilivi ready to "be a good example and help." "I understand that people don't know how to feel, considering that not long ago there was excitement about the Champions League. Girona certainly hadn't anticipated that. And football isn't about that; it's not about everything going your way. You can't expect that to happen again," he replies, keeping his feet firmly on the ground. He adds that "we're not a squad that loses the way we've lost at the start, but that's not an excuse, because we should have done better; now we have to make an effort and turn things around."

The African-American footballer

The Belgian describes himself as "a regulator, a player who controls the game and knows when to slow it down and when to increase the pace." And one last detail: "I always have my hair in an afro when I play." Where does this come from? "Many years ago, when I met my wife. It wasn't to win her over, no [laughs]. I wanted to do something different, and I let it grow. I like to experiment; I've often had dreadlocks," he notes nonchalantly. "I'm not one for having too many ideas or getting stressed out in pressure situations. All I think about is having fun and giving my all for Girona. I'm happy to be back on the pitch," he concludes.