Aitor: Olympiacos is an eternal rival – I feel like playing against Hames and Marcelo

Aitor did a big interview on his country’s show, “Punto Deportivo”. Through Twitch, they talked about the start of Panathinaikos this season, the coronavirus that he and five other teammates had before the first match against Slavia Prague last August, the issue of his contract, but also the transfers of Marcelo and James Rodriguez to Olympiakos. His statements in detail:

On what has changed and they have started the season so strongly, he and Panathinaikos:

“The situation has changed a lot. Football is about moments. Football is sometimes very bad and other times it makes you very happy. Now, taking advantage of the good moment, last year I finished the season well, we won the Cup and I focused on preparing to start the season well, the league, it was very important for us, for the club, to start well and I think we couldn’t have started better . We have won all five matches, now we rest with the break, realizing what has happened, every day I see the ball and I feel happy. Very happy with this start”.

On the injuries to four Barcelona players in the Nations League:

“I would like to play with the national team and I have teammates, three Slovenians and one Icelander, who feel proud to play with their national teams” he underlined, adding that the fatigue from traveling and training plays its role for the injuries.

For the exclusion from Slavia:

“We were in a great mood to do well. The club had many years to play European competition and the truth is that things turned out badly. A week before the matches, for which we had prepared well, we had played against good teams in friendlies like Bayer Leverkusen and Watford and six of our players contracted the coronavirus, including me. We went to Prague with just two days of training and then a week at home.

I had the coronavirus very badly, especially the first three days with a high fever. And in their stadium we pushed ourselves a lot, it was very hot, Slavia played a formation that we had never seen before, one-on-one all over the pitch and surprised us, surprised us. We couldn’t work well. It’s a shame, because in the second leg we were very competitive, we were close to extra time and in the end we were eliminated and it left a bitter taste in our mouths. The best thing was that the people were very proud of how we gave everything in the second leg and thanks to that we saw that we are capable of playing well, that there was good cooperation even though there were a lot of new faces and it gave us a boost to go strong at the start of the championship”.

On the transfers of Marcelo and James Rodríguez:

“Our eternal rival is Olympiacos. He took James Rodriguez and Marcelo. Yes, I feel like playing against them. We have discussed in the locker room about Olympiakos transfers. At the end of the day, it’s good for the league to have players like that coming in, because that’s how more people see it. And it’s even better because we’re first. Olympiacos has not started well, Marcelo has not made his debut, because he had not prepared and it is probably difficult for him to be ready.

At Real last year he seemed to struggle a bit with the pace, but in Greece he can do it, even if the Greek league is very dynamic, with physical contact. You have to be ready. I too had a hard time adjusting. It doesn’t matter which league you come from, you need time to adapt. It takes patience. Here we play with closed teams, the pitches are small…”.

For the goal phase with PAOK in the Cup final:

“I’m going to the corner to celebrate. I had said the same morning to my manager that if I score, I will celebrate like Gerard (s.s. Deulofeu). It wasn’t anything provocative. And my teammates come, they throw bottles, everything and I feel a sharp pain in my hand, like a finger was turned, I saw my hand and one finger was turned and a hole with blood in my hand. I was wondering what they hit me with.

In the locker room Juancar told me that they threw a stone at me. If he had hit me in the head, he might have killed me or broken my head. We think the fans broke the ground and that the stone was for opposing fans or the police, but it was thrown at me. I think there is no control and that they even enter the stadium without a ticket. I cannot go to certain areas of Athens. I haven’t tried it of course. PAOK, of course, is from another city, from Thessaloniki. Discussing it with my girlfriend and the family, we said that I could go blind if it hit me in the eye or something even more serious.”

On whether… he is afraid when he celebrates:

“Next week we play PAOK at their stadium. It also has to do with lifestyle. The country is a mess and there is no problem in saying it, they say it themselves. The other day I posted a video on Instagram, I was driving, I stop at a traffic light and I see the car next to me and it’s someone driving who has something next to him. He had a mattress next to him all over the car, on both seats, he had his mattress on his head… Crazy… It’s crazy. I have it on video, my friend recorded it.

Greeks know they live in a mess, why did I upload it and write “is this normal?” and they answered me “welcome” and such. And like this I can tell many such incidents. It’s crazy, you won’t believe it. Another time, in a car, two guys, they had a huge box on top, I got in the back, and it was a 70 inch TV, they didn’t fit in the car, it was on top and one was holding it with the left and the other with the right, without being tied anywhere. You see this every day. And the police, a few things. Aside from the chaos, however, you live just fine here. It is a unique experience (s.s. laughing)”.

About his contract:

“It ends this year, we’ll see what happens. There has been rumored interest from various teams, but no contact. Not even from Panathinaikos have they offered me a renewal yet.”

On what changed competitively for him:

“What has changed is that before I was not playing and now I am playing. Things are going very well for me. People’s support is incredible, when I go out with my girlfriend people recognize me. I wear the “22” because I wanted the “7” when I arrived but it was taken and because I came from the Netherlands, where there is Ziegler who I really like, he wore the “22”. And because I had faced him, a very good boy, a phenomenon on the pitch, I watched him play, he is left-footed like me and that’s why I chose “22” which was free.

I’ve seen people wearing my shirt, I imagine after the Cup sales would be good. Here they don’t choke you on the street, in Holland I lived in a village and they were more pushy. Olympiakos fans also come here and talk to you that you are a very good player, that we would like you in the team and such”.

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