It is not usual to see such a young player, a newcomer to the First Division, with ideas as clear as those he expresses. Iker Losada (23 years old) every time he stands in front of a microphone. From his brilliant emergence into the RC Celta de Vigo first team, with a goal against Real Madrid in 19/20, to his disappearance from the celestial team, his re-emergence at Racing de Ferrol and his signing for Real Betis. These ups and downs have forged a footballer who exhibits maturity and is very clear about what he wants and how he can achieve it: by working. For this reason, he admits that he must work hard and improve much more before being able to claim more prominence as a green and white player. He appreciates the trust that the Heliopolitans have shown him, closes any avenue towards an exit in the winter market and clarifies that the rumors of his return to BalaΓdos were more fiction than reality. Likewise, that 18-year-old player who made his debut in LaLiga would not have been able to make this leap in level, but The one from Catoira had a talk that ‘clicked’ in his head and that has marked his career.
Iker Losada: “Playing for Betis with Isco or Lo Celso makes me horny”
“I’m very good at Betis. The competitiveness here is a pleasure, with all that litter of midfielders and midfielders that we have. Competing every day with people of this level is another bummer. I love it… it makes me horny‘. Since you were little you have dreamed of playing in First Division and Having players like Isco or Gio (Lo Celso) in your position is a pleasure“, explains the Catoira playmaker in a casual interview given to the TV channel. TQHT Podcast -which follows the news of RC Celta- during a visit to Galicia last weekend, during the two days off that Pellegrini gave the green and white team taking advantage of the league break.
“The truth is that When I get the offer from Betis I think it’s too big for me, but then I talk to Manu (Fajardo), the sports director, and they show me that this was a different story.. I was used to Racing de Ferrol and the Celta youth team, but I realized that I was joining a great team in Spain, to a club where the pressure is high,” says the 23-year-old playmaker, who admits as something normal that he It is so difficult to get minutes and that Pellegrini decided to leave him off the registration list for the Conference League: “We all want to be there and play everything, but the coach gave me his reasons and I have to understand them. It is important that he comes to give me explanations”.
The talk that changed Iker Losada’s career
“That talk with Claudio GirΓ‘ldez is the best of my life. It was just me and we both opened up, we said things to each other and that’s it. It was in Zaragoza, we had a youth tournament, he changed me and I had a bad attitude towards him. Children’s things, that now I see myself and it is to give me two hosts. When the anger subsided, I went to talk to him. We played in the morning and this was at night, before dinner. I asked him for forgiveness, obviously, we started talking and that’s where he opened my eyes to say ‘You have to grow up’. That talk changed me and I will take it with me to the grave,” recalled Iker Losada, grateful to the Galician coach.
Dispel rumors of a possible return to Celta
Celta’s sports director, Marcos GarcΓ©s, already stated that they were far from being able to sign Iker Losada, something that the celestial youth player himself confirms: “The Celta thing this summer was further than what people said. I took off X (ancient Twitter) because I read everything… every day I got more angry and I distanced myself from everything. I was deciding what to do with my future and Betis arrived. You can’t say no to a ‘top’ club in Spainwith which you are going to play three competitions. I am a very competitive person and I hate losing. I lose a lot of times, but I hate it and you won’t find anyone more upset than me. Competing with Isco, Nabil Fekir was still there, Gio arrived… It’s what I was looking for. I want minutes and that influences, but I know that competing with these players with so much experience will make me improve to be able to have those minutes. “I’m very happy at Betis, I’m learning a lot,” insisted the green and white ’16’, ruling out an exit.
At Betis, his main support is the Galician goalkeeper Fran Vieites, as he confessed, laughingly revealing that the goalkeeper reproaches him that he does not want to meet him and always stays at home. As a Green and White player, his most special moment was the last game, in front of his family: “Playing against Celta was a satisfaction and a source of pride. He said ‘I’m in the First Division and I’m going to enjoy my work against the club that saw me grow up, the coach that had me when I was little and many teammates that accompanied me in the quarry’. In our stadium, with all the people… I couldn’t ask for more. Well… I could have scored the chance I had, but I missed it,” he said with hilarity in ‘You should have thrown it’.