I have come to Scotland for three reasons, firstly, to finish my degree at the University of Aberdeen.  I’m here for six months until January to complete a project.  I also want to improve my English and I hope to play football. 

I have a football agent in Spain, but he only found me two Highland League clubs about 50 miles from Aberdeen.  I spoke to a friend of mine who was over last summer to train with St Johnstone and he said he thought my level would be the Scottish first or second division, so I looked for clubs on the internet myself. 

I tried the nearest first division club, Dundee, to begin with, but Jocky Scott did not want to speak to me.  I then looked at the three second division clubs closest to Aberdeen; Brechin, Peterhead and Arbroath on the internet.  Arbroath had the best webpage, and it is near the sea, so I thought I would try Arbroath first.  It is not necessary for me to live in Aberdeen because I only have to meet with the lecturers once or twice a week.  So I walked into Gayfield and told Mike I wanted to play football, could I train with the club, and that’s how I came to be here.

I play left-back.

I played for Granollers for one season, the next season I was at Manresa, then I played for FC Barcelona C, (Barcelona’s third team) for one season and then the last two seasons I played for Vilanova.

At all of the clubs I was full-time.  I would train four days a week, and have a match day, then I spent the rest of the time studying.  When I was at Barcelona we had more training so I had to reduce the number of subjects I was studying. 

While you were at Barcelona, did you play or train with any of the big stars?

Although I was playing for the third team, I trained most of the time with the second team.  Pedro,  Victor Sanchez and a couple of others who played for FC Barcelona were in the second team at the time.  I never got the chance to train with the first team unfortunately.

For the past five years I’ve played football in the Spanish third division.  I think that Spanish players are more technical than the Scots, but the Scots are stronger and fitter as they run all the time.  I think that sometimes they can stop running and let the ball do some work!  I don’t like the way that the defenders pass the big, high ball up to the forwards and miss out the midfield, but that’s not just Arbroath, I think that is the big difference between spanish and Scottish football.  I played in the game last Monday and I think I played better in the second half when it was not raining!    I think my fitness is not up to the rest of the players at the moment but technically I am happy.  I am used to playing with someone in front of me in a 4-4-2 system, but I can change my mentality and get used to playing 3-5-2.

In August I thought it would rain more than it did.  I have some Spanish friends in Dundee and they said it was a typical August so that is OK.  I think the East coast of Scotland is drier than the West coast.  I prefer the cold to the heat, but I don’t like the wind.  A little rain doesn’t matter, but when it rained for more than a day without stopping and there was lots of it, it was not good listening to it on the caravan roof!  It’s not good to play football with the strong wind, especially when you play the long passes.

The first thing I have noticed is that you all talk so fast!  My partner Anna was over in Scotland with me, and we went to Inverness for a few days, but I haven’t seen much of Scotland at the moment. 

I have to say I feel very lucky to have picked Arbroath because the club has opened it’s arms to me.  I don’t think the other clubs would have been so good to me.  I am very thankful especially to Margaret and Mike, they have done so much to help me.  At the moment I feel like I am on holiday because I am living in a caravan and I have not signed for a team yet.  Anna has had to go back to Spain so I have been a bit lonely this week.  I hope to sign for Arbroath, or for another team if they don’t sign me, and to get a flat, get myself settled and then I think I will be happier.  I hope to keep improving my English too.