The Holy Week devotee who wants to make Espanyol great

Cornellà de LlobregatRamon Rodríguez Verdejo (San Fernando, 1968) is known by everyone as Monchi and is identified as the architect of the greatest Sevilla in history and one of the best sporting directors in the world. He is backed by more than a dozen titles, including seven Europa Leagues, and many millions in capital gains. With this resume, it is not surprising that his signing for Espanyol has unleashed euphoria among many 'periquitos'. Seduced by Alan Pace, with whom he began to meet more than two months ago, he will try to replicate his successful formula as the entity's general sporting director, which presented him to society on Tuesday.

A self-taught sporting director

But before becoming one of the most prestigious executives in the world of football, Monchi was a goalkeeper for Sevilla. Usually a substitute –“I was good in training, but more average in matches”, he usually says–, he was more famous for the impersonations Sergi Mas did of him on Alfons Arús's television program than for his saves. At the Andalusian club, he shared a locker room with Diego Armando Maradona, who gave him a Cartier watch because he saw him with a fake Rolex.

While he was active, he trained as a lawyer and dreamed of dedicating himself to politics, but he ended up signing and selling players by chance. A dyed-in-the-wool Sevillista and a club man –after hanging up his gloves, he served as delegate and head of press and organized the first team's trips–, he didn't think twice when, in May 2000, he was offered to be the technical secretary of a team in technical bankruptcy that had just been relegated to the Second Division. It was the cheapest option.

Without training or vocation, Monchi had never considered being a sports director. He knew nothing about it, but he bought a notebook, wrote down the phone numbers of some agents, and started scouting fields to see players he could sign for free. This is how he built the empire of a Sevilla that then had no structure whatsoever. His office had no player reports or drawers to keep them in, an evidence of the under-professionalization of the role at that time. "When I started, WyScout was perhaps a town in Minnesota," he said at his presentation as a white-and-blue, with a sense of humor: "From time to time I make a joke, as I'm from Cadiz, from the island of León. From San Fernando." That's why he calls himself the Lion of San Fernando. As a good man from Cadiz, he is also a great lover of Carnival and chirigotas, the only thing heard in his car, and he has even debuted at the Teatro Falla in Cadiz. He is very proud of it.

Monchi's confraternal passion

"» to YouTube and you'll see it," he said when asked about Manolo's wild celebration with the Curva de He also experiences football with great emotion. “Look for “Monchi locuras” on YouTube and you'll see,” he said when asked about Manolo's unbridled celebration with La Curva last Saturday. Both are visceral and suffer – the doctor recommended the man from Cadiz not to experience matches with such passion – and they will form a tandem next season, because the Andalusian's first major decision has been to confirm the coach: “He is the ideal person to continue building Espanyol”.

Monchi, who is superstitious but does not believe in luck, considers himself a locker room sporting director. The 20 days he has been at the club have allowed him to take the temperature of Espanyol – he has been seen on the bus, in the locker room and even on the pitch at the RCDE Stadium – and confirm that the coach has clear ideas and that, despite the poor run of results, his message was reaching the players. He considers this essential, and the heavyweights of the Catalan team conveyed this to him.

This Wednesday, both met to begin planning the summer market. Monchi, who reads the news from the International section because he believes that to do his job well he needs to be up to date on geopolitics, does not promise titles, big signings, or a staggering investment at Espanyol: "Money doesn't guarantee anything. I believe more in creating the necessary structure," he says, and he usually adds that his great legacy is the organization he created in Seville.

However, he is clear that with him the periquito club will be ambitious, and he let slip that "Europe should not be a utopia." From now on, Espanyol's future is in Monchi's hands, who summarized what he is coming to do at the white-and-blue club with a phrase from Jorge Valdano: "'The word success only comes before work in the dictionary.' In the rest of life, the only way to have success is to work.