FCBARCELONA.CAT

06.09.2008 10:35

Reiziger, near the Camp Nou

Miriam Nadal

After hanging up his boots, Michael Reiziger now lives in Gavá (Barcelona) and watches Barça’s evolution closely, a team led by one of his ex-team-mates, Josep Guardiola. “He’s a leader and he’s prepared”, he summed up.

The Dutch defender left Barça in 2004 headed for Middlesborough. Later he went to PSV Eindhoven and now he has hung up his boots. But the Dutchman follows Barça’s evolution closely as, since a year and a half ago, he lives in Gavá. “There is nowhere in Europe where you can live like you can here”, admits the ex-defender who arrived in Barcelona on the 4th of July 1997 from AC Milan.

Confidence in his ex-team mates

Reiziger shared the changing room with the present manager, Josep Guardiola, for four seasons and highlights the character of the man from Santpedor. “He is very good at his job because he was a leader in the changing room. He has a good team and is prepared”, says the Dutch footballer, who thinks, “the team needs time, but we can do something important”.

He also shared games and the changing room with the reserve team manager: “When Pep left the leader was Luis Enrique, they both know the world of football really well”.

He wants to be a manager

At present, the Dutchman has similar objectives as the other ex-players of his generation: to lead from the bench. “I’m doing a management course in Holland and in a years time I may already be one”, he points out decidedly. He added: “I’m doing the course in Holland but I would like to work here in Spain, although I may have to start there”.

The defenders characteristics

On the profile of right back, the position he played for Barça from 1997 to 2004, he remarked that it’s a position which is always linked to the cooperation in defence. “In all the leagues there is a debate as to how defenders have to be, if they should push up or not… It depends on the defender playing further up or not and also on the team mates; in other words the kind of team”.