OROne day he is in the small area in Ciudad Juárez, one of the most dangerous places on the planet, and another appears in Majadahonda, a comfortable Madrid town. It is the vital agenda of Alejandro Arribas (Madrid, 1989).
with past in Rayo Vallecano, Osasuna, Seville, Depor, Pumas and Oviedothe center-back is now the head of the defense for FC Jurez (Los Bravos), a task that he combines with his role as maximum shareholder of Rayo Majadahonda, a team in the First RFEF.
It was in December 2021 when this Europa League champion with Sevilla in 2010 ventured into Mexican football for the second time after his time at Pumas. “The general director of Oviedo, Joaqun del Olmo, is going to Jurez and counts on me. a door opens“says the footballer.
It was not an easy destination. Juárez is considered the fifth most violent city in the world. With a million and a half inhabitants, in 2021 there were 1,424 murdersalmost all related to drug trafficking.
The driver tells us where to go in Jurez, we are at home a lot
It was logical to inquire: “I asked about security as a precaution,” says Arribas, who admits that in Jurez “there isn’t much to do either. You don’t have to move too much. We spend a lot of time at home, in a residential area with private security.” . The chauffeur tells us where to go.” In that bubble he also isolates himself from television, “because it is better not to know. In the news everything is bad, like when it is put in Spain“. The good thing is to share the experience with your partner and your two-year-old son.
In the next ten days, Arribas, with a contract, will find out if Jurez has him for his next plan. The team was last in the championship, but in the Mexican tournament they are not relegated. “It is a young club that is doing things well and wants to grow and contribute to the city“.
The defender sees in Mexico a football “more physical than Spanish” and similar in terms of “passion, it’s beautiful”.
Regarding the industry, Arribas perceives that in Mexico “they are trying to develop aspects of the NBA, NFL, MLB or MLS.” It also contributes to this Alejandra de la Vega, owner of Jurez, a Mexican businesswoman who has entered the national cover of Forbes and that she is considered one of the most powerful women in the country.
Alejandro Arribas entered that cluster of businesses in 2019, becoming the maximum shareholder of Rayo Majadahonda, the town where he grew up and kicked the ball for the first time. It is his father who takes care of the day to day while he continues with his markings.
Arribas certifies that the footballer “has progressed a lot in his training. Not in terms of us being university students. I mean a level of restlessness and being more connected to reality. I take the steps to continue contributing far from the green and to be able to return everything that I have learned”.
In this new wave Piqu’s name appears on the menu: “It’s an experience to be a footballer, businessman, president… Andorra will go up sooner or later. It has more advantages, such as taxes or the budget. “He Considers Thunderbolt Majadahonda” my life. We are in the fight for promotion and to return to professional football.”
Villarreal’s management is very good… and with economic support
Another mirror, still distant, is Villarreal, a club “with a very good management and a strong economic support like Roig’s. From there the squad, the facilities… it’s a whole process,” says Arribas, who did not compares his Rayo Majadahonda because “we have little social mass for it. There is Madrid, Atleti, Rayo, Getafe… It is difficult to have rapid growth“.
Problems are not a wall. When the season ends, Majadahonda expects new investors and sponsors. While, the football school already moves almost a thousand children, 770 of them federated: “The goal is for the club to maintain itself.”
They are the new concerns of Arribas, far from “Falcao and Fernando Llorente, the strikers who made me suffer a lot”. Center and businessman.
Discussion about this post