Real Betis have an outside shot of finishing in La Liga’s top four, with a Champions League place still within their grasp, but nothing will beat Saturday’s win for Nabil Fekir.
Betis has won three trophies in its 115-year history, the last of them coming in the Copa del Rey in 2005, when a 12-year-old fakir was joining the youth academy in Lyon, the club which released him two years later. Was. Not being strong enough.
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In Saturday’s Copa del Rey final between Betis and Valencia, Fekir will probably be the toughest player on the pitch, a jittery, muscular attacking midfielder who has been known to have more fouls per game this season than any other player in La Liga. have faced.
He has also been a driving force for Betis. With five games left in the league, Betis are fifth, four points away from the top four, and if it proves too wide to close a gap, lifting the cup will be more than just a consolation.
“It would be amazing to play in the Champions League, it’s a prestigious competition, everybody wants to play in it, taste it,” Fekir says in an exclusive interview with AFP at the club’s Luis del Sol training ground.
“But we have one game left in the cup, it is a do or die match. We are honored to be in the final and we will give everything we can to try to win.
“It will be beautiful, something incredibly special. The most important thing is to win trophies, especially here, with the enthusiasm we have in this club and the supporters. It doesn’t happen every day.”
“It’s for everyone. For the people who work at the club, for the supporters. Seville is a city that lives in the rhythm of football. We want to win this for them.”
– ‘Make you mature’ –
Over the past decade, Betis has twice needed promotion to return from the second tier, while the lower mid-table has been more common than anything close to the top six.
But the arrival of Manuel Pellegrini as coach in 2020 gave the team a boost, finishing sixth in its first season and currently on track to do better in its second season.
Pellegrini is renowned for his ability to remain calm, but like the mystic, he also has an explosive side.
“I have a great relationship with him,” says Fakir.
“He trusts me and I try to repay that trust on the pitch.
“That’s it, believe it. When we think something isn’t right, we say so, and then everything turns out well.”
The mystic says that Pellegrini is held in the highest esteem in Betis.
“He is highly respected, especially here in this club,” says the fakir.
“What people think outside, I don’t know, but the most important thing for me is to be respected in the place where you work every day. Here, everyone knows what that is. He’s everyone’s darling.” Huh.”
The fakir’s temperament will be tested by Valencia, who are 10th in La Liga and have committed more fouls and picked up more yellow cards this season than any other.
For his part, Fekir has been shown 10 yellows and two raids, the latest coming last month against Athletic Bilbao, when he teased Athletic by kick-up and then kicked out on Iker Munian.
“I expect contact, I’m a player who loves contact, I need it when I’m on the pitch, to feel my opponent,” he says.
“And when you get close to an opponent, you always expose yourself to those things, to fouls and friction. No matter what, we adapt, it’s my game.
“But the referee also has to protect the players with quality.”
As well as his quality, the fakir’s physicality has, for some time, put him in the eye of the top clubs in Europe, including, in 2018, Liverpool. Fakir has said that the move broke down due to problems with his agent.
“Tests like these make you mature,” says Fakir.
“In life, nothing is guaranteed. You have to keep working, keep moving forward. I talked to Jurgen Klopp, I met him. Was close. But having nothing to do with football, it never happened.”
The disappointment is clear but the fakir has continued to flourish and there is still hope that he can play for France in the World Cup later this year.
“It’s my best season here,” says Fakir. “I will always give my everything and I never hide. That’s what they want from me.”
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