If anyone can understand Martin Zubimendi’s decision to turn down Liverpool’s advances this summer in favour of staying at Real Sociedad, it’s Asier Illarramendi.
In the summer of 2013, he had just been named La Liga’s ‘Breakthrough Player’ and ‘Best Midfielder’; he was 23 years old and one of the most sought-after central midfielders in Europe.
“It is very difficult to leave home, to leave your family. Real Sociedad isn’t just another club, we are a family. I was there many years and I saw players leave Real Sociedad but leave sad because they leave their family.” “To me, I can honestly say the pressure got to me, but this is football, it happens. I’ve moved on and I learned a lot from those experiences.”
Now 34, he is the second-oldest player on the Dallas roster. Once one of the hottest young midfielders in Europe, he is now a veteran who often shares a midfield with Patrickson Delgado , Dante Sealy and Bernard Kamungo .“You learn everything when you train with the best players in the world,” he says. “I was like a sponge; I absorbed everything from the players and tried to learn the most that I could.
He has been free of serious injuries thus far in the US, racking up 26 MLS starts since his move just over a year ago. And, playing regularly again, he has adapted well to the demands of playing in a foreign league for the first time in his career. He has scored twice already this season, a tally he has eclipsed only once before, while his return of four assists is just one shy of his career best.
Illarramendi’s new life in Dallas has even given him a sense of sympathy toward David Moyes, under whom he briefly worked at Real Sociedad. He admits he never saw the video of the Scottish managerduring a press conference, but his own battles with the language barrier make him inclined to give his old gaffer a pass for botching him multisyllabic moniker.
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