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As we close the final international window of 2021 and return to domestic competition, Mikel Merino reflects on quite the year, still trying to take it all in. It’s been, a year full of achievements for the 25-year-old Spanish midfielder. His team Real Sociedad lead La Liga and even though there’s a long way to go, this wonderful Basque club feels confident about the journey. Merino, is cautiously optimistic about the task at hand. For now, everything is about the present.
“Right now we are just thinking about the moment,” says Merino, speaking to ¡Qué Golazo! and CBS Sports. ‘Thinking about winning La Liga is just not realistic right now for us. We just want to keep doing our job, work hard, improve and focus on what we want to do better. Keep winning. We feel confident. We feel mentally and physically strong, but this tournament is so long that you cannot have a moment to rest throughout the season, because you lose. We just have to think about where we want improvement…and then…we’ll talk again in a few months.”
We’ll return to La Real, but an achievement he can definitely celebrate is his most recent adventure with the Spanish national team, helping La Roja reach the World Cup after an almost perfect qualifying campaign under Luis Enrique.
“I’m very happy and very proud, especially as we know how much it takes to get to a World Cup, as we can see from all the nations who are on the outside looking in, and for how long we have fought for it, super happy for the whole group, and happy for the national team and everyone who have continued to support us throughout,” says Merino. “Now, I am just so excited to go and see what we can do.”
Playing for the national team is an honor for any player but when you’re a Spanish midfielder. In Spain, the midfielder is everything. It’s where Picasso paints Guernica or Federico Garcia Lorca writes Blood Wedding. It’s where art is…
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Source : cbssports
