[Albion] Izqueirdo interview

[Saltydog]

Lovely chap. So bubbly and seemingly happy to be here. We are so lucky to have caring team to help settle and look after new players who have come from near and far rather than a bunch of look at mes.

 

[Stat Brother]

The infectious way he answered every question laughing was joyous.

I appreciate we only see him for a very short time every (other) week, but it's hard to imagine him giving that interview just a couple of months ago, when he seemed to have the weight of the world on his shoulders.

As said I may well be loud wrong but to me he comes across as a player who NEEDS the fans support, irrespective of his form.

 

[Wardy's twin]

love the bit where he says ' i started to play the number 10 don't know how you say that in England'

 

[Spicy]

What a top bloke. The pet pig is FLAIR too.

What a brilliant guy, love his attitude and humour (and the pig).

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Probably the wrong thread, but how about this, to the tune of My Old Mans a Dustman.

His name is Izqueirdo
His best mate's Pete The Pig
And if you mention bacon, you'll get a ****ing dig
He scores them with his left foot, he scores them with his right?
And when he scores for Brighton, we sing this song all night.....



I'll get my coat.

.... as long as it's not pigskin.

 

[B52]

Probably the wrong thread, but how about this, to the tune of My Old Mans a Dustman.

His name is Izqueirdo
His best mate's Pete The Pig
And if you mention bacon, you'll get a ****ing dig
He scores them with his left foot, he scores them with his right?
And when he scores for Brighton, we sing this song all night.....



I'll get my coat.

Actually that is very good, simple words and a tune everybody knows, whats not to like over to you NS.

 

[LlcoolJ]

Probably the wrong thread, but how about this, to the tune of My Old Mans a Dustman.

His name is Izqueirdo
His best mate's Pete The Pig
And if you mention bacon, you'll get a ****ing dig
He scores them with his left foot, he scores them with his right?
And when he scores for Brighton, we sing this song all night.....



I'll get my coat.

Most song attempts on here are cringe/gash/don't scan/unoriginal shite.....

That's actually good. Chapeau sir!

 

[BN41Albion]

Just got round to watching this. What a guy - firmly one of my favourites in the squad now! Christ what a squad of fantastic individuals and honest professionals Hughton has assembled. Says so much about how much he values team spirit and togetherness in the squad.

 

[Greg Bobkin]

Absolutely brilliant and clearly loving life and football. The interview reminds me of this guy:

 

[dazzer6666]

Absolutely brilliant and clearly loving life and football. The interview reminds me of this guy:

Still not as funny as the MASSIVE version ��

 

[trueblue]

Terrific interview with him in the Sunday Times, Jonathan Northcroft:

He was “unbelievable,” says Jose Izquierdo when discussing his brother, Diego Julian, who was killed in a road accident when Jose was 14. Diego Julian was 29. One night in Pereira, Colombia, he fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his car. When they told him, Jose felt a strange instinct: “I said maybe the life of him was like this because he enjoyed so much. He did all the things he had to do and finished.”

Diego Julian partied. He loved women, carousing, food. He played football — perhaps better than Jose, old coaches say — but had too much living to do to commit himself to the game. He was an engineer, involved in social projects. “He helped people,” says Jose with pride. “Before he died he made, like, 100 houses for poor people.” On Jose’s shoulder: that’s where Diego Julian is now. “I think I have an angel there that takes care of me. For example, my brother died in a car accident and he was a very good driver, and you can’t believe me that I never have accident. Never. Since I started driving at 15. Nothing. I’ve had options to crash but I always think something happens to stop me. Maybe him. I believe very much in God, and maybe it is something that is part of my story, that has to be like this,” Jose suggests. He’s thoughtful, but at peace.

“He was an amazing, amazing brother,” Jose continues. “I was the kid. He was like my best friend. The inspiration he gave me was ‘enjoy life’. He was 29. One moment, boom and it was finished. Sometimes I think if he was still alive, I wouldn’t be playing soccer... you don’t know... things happen in life for a reason. They’re part of your story. Maybe what happened is what gave me extra strength. Maybe it was some sort of blessing. Everything I reach, everything I can get from football, I dedicate to him.”

Jose Izquierdo: he reminds you of the beauty of the Premier League. Of how all those players you see from different corners of the world, all trying, striving have — even at the smaller clubs — made it in some way. They’ve come far, they’ve journeyed, with people behind or alongside them. And now they’re here — in their sport’s richest competition.

Izquierdo gave up, briefly, when Diego Julian died. Then, after he left school at 15 to go professional, he broke his leg. And at 21 he almost gave up again: after two seasons in Colombia’s second tier he wasn’t making money nor, he felt, sufficient progress and he was studying business management. Four years later, there he was, a record £13.5m signing (from Club Brugge), scoring his first goal for Brighton (versus West Ham, in October) after which he tweeted: “Nice to meet you [MENTION=34361]PremierLeague[/MENTION] My name is Jose Izquierdo. Another Dreamer player from Colombia” (sic).

And that’s what he believes, that “players are not only players: we can show to society the reality that dreams can come true.” Smiling — his default expression — Izquierdo rolls up his left sleeve. On his arm a word is tattooed: Resilienza — “resilience”. He got it after winning Belgian player of the year in 2016, to remind himself of the journey and that he’s a fighter. He peeked at it during games. “I wanted something I could look at and say ‘f****** hell’. That in bad moments I could see and say ‘move, move!’”

Words, to him, are vital. Aged 19, at his family home in Pereira, he took a biro and drew above his bed a mural of eight key words: Resilienza (perseverance), metas (goals), esperanza (hope), suenos (dreams), amistad (friendship), sacrificio (sacrifice), Ilusion (imagination), dedicasia (dedication). Upon joining Club Brugge from Once Caldas he began again, decorating his apartment with slogans. He ruined the walls and faced an expensive paint job so has been more careful at his flat in Brighton. There, Blu-Tacked to his sitting room door are sheets of paper on which he has inscribed phrases such as “Don’t Stop Running”, “Decision Without Action is Nothing” and “People Who Give Up Never Win”. Before leaving for training or a match he takes time to stare at these mottos.

“You know auto-suggestion?” he says, showing a picture of his ‘message wall’ on his phone. “I read in a book that to reach your goals, you need to write the words. At Once Caldas, I met a player, Daniel Hernandez, who became my friend. In his room he put pictures of things: money, places in the world. He said: ‘These are the things I dream.’

“I said, ‘finally you teach me something!’ So I changed pictures for words. The problem many people have is bad thoughts stay in their mind — this is about remembering the ones that will help you.” He credits his agent, William Londono, who “pushed me to read books — to change that view people have of football players.” Londono spotted him as a junior and guided his ascent and Izquierdo thanked him with an unusual gift — a micro-pig, named Peter, who is now famous via his own Instagram account.

That’s the fun side of Izquierdo that most people know: Peter, Lucho his bulldog (another social media star), his sunglasses collection, his hobby of DJing. The fun, joy, energy spills out when he’s playing. After an initial period where, he admits, the speed and power of the Premier League required adjusting to, he has been a spark for Chris Hughton’s team: man-of-the-match against Swansea last week and electric throughout Brighton’s six-game unbeaten run.

He has scored brilliant goals. One came in November, at home to Stoke, when his mother, Jovita, was visiting from Colombia and at the Amex for her very first game; she’d always been too nervous to watch him before. Izquierdo describes joining Bruges. “I arrived to a place I couldn’t even point to on the map, Belgium. The culture, the language, the food, I didn’t know what it would be. I’d never felt so cold when I got there.

“When I go down from the plane, my bones crack. My first game, I didn’t feel my toes. When I shoot, I feel burning in my feet and say ‘no, it’s not possible!’” What month was this? January? “August!” he hoots. Jovita may still not be over how he honed his skills as a kid, with a ball made from rolled-up socks. “We had a small living room. A sofa and one stand to put the TV. And under the stand there were small boxes. So I put the sofa on a diagonal like this,” Jose says, getting up and rearranging our chairs. “I come in through a space and I make the cross and the sofa score...”

He’d chip the socks against the sofa’s arm so they deflected into the box for a ‘goal’. “You can’t imagine how many socks my mum had to buy... I stayed home to look after my cousins and when they were asleep I made my stadium. I broke so many vases! But in those days, with my crosses, the sofa scored more than Glenn Murray... And now I’m very bad at crossing...” he says, hooting again.

“When I get the ball at my feet it is the most...I don’t know...it is everything,” he says, smiling the biggest smile. “The ball, it is the best feeling. When I receive the ball and have the pitch in front of me...run. Run for it.”

 

[the right footed denilson]

Terrific interview with him in the Sunday Times, Jonathan Northcroft:

Wow. My new favourite player. What a gorgeous interview.

 

[dazzer6666]

This, plus the Sky interview are fantastic. What an infectious character. Brilliant.