Espanyol goalkeeper Kiko Casilla thought his teammate was joking.
“You’re in the Spain squad,” a player in the dressing room said. A phone was held up showing the Twitter feed of the Spanish Football Federation and the three goalkeepers named in the 23-man squad: Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas, Manchester United’s David de Gea and the Espanyol stopper.
Pertinently, Casillas has 3.59 million followers on Twitter, De Gea 4.07 million, and the man from Espanyol has 9,786.
“Genuinely surprised,” said Casilla, 28, who is regarded as the best keeper in the air in Spain.
“Good luck messages arrived, then a fax was sent to Espanyol with instructions for two games, one a friendly against France in the Stade de France – 80,000 people. Though I knew I was unlikely to play, I was very excited and not nervous. I know most of the Madrid and Barcelona players from my time at Madrid or with the Catalan national team.”
Spain’s national side, the best in the world until recently, is dominated by players from Barcelona, Madrid’s giants and those in England’s Premier League.
Espanyol, a proud club long tired of living in Barcelona’s shadow, is not a natural stop for coaches of Spain’s national team, but Casilla’s form merits his selection and serious injuries to Victor Valdes and Pepe Reina, now reserve keeper at Bayern Munich, meant a vacancy.
Playing for a perpetually mid-table team sees him kept busy, too, not that the stars of the Primera Liga always found joy playing against Casilla.
In Christian Ronaldo’s six games against the Catalan from Alcover, a town of 5,000 near Tarragona, the Real Madrid star has scored once, and that was five meetings ago.
The Ballon d’Or holder has been seen shaking his head and smiling because he could not beat Casilla.
Not that the pleasant, family man – “being a father to my four-year-old daughter takes up my life away from football” – would feel in awe of any Madrid stars.
The capital’s top club are due 50 per cent of any sale of the goalkeeper, who is being watched by English scouts – “there was a story about an offer from Liverpool last month, but I know nothing of that” – because he first went to the Bernabeu club at 14.
“A Madrid scout in Catalonia approached me as I walked back to my parents’ car after a youth game with Nastic [local club Gimnastic Tarragona],” he said.
“I was flattered and they offered me a deal. I moved to Madrid in November by myself and didn’t know anyone. It was hard, going from a town of 5,000 to a city of five million.
“All the other boys had been there since the summer. Three of us slept in a room, me and two Andalusians. One is now playing for a village team and I’ve lost contact with the other.”
Casilla overcame his homesickness, appreciating Madrid’s excellent facilities and the schooling through which they put their young players. “Of course Madrid teach you to win, but to be a correct person, too,” he said.
Leaving home early in pursuit of a sporting career runs in his family.
“My brother Jose is a professional volleyball player and moved away when he was 14, too,” he said. “He was only 21 when he represented Spain in the Sydney Olympics, the youngest in the team. The whole family got up at 4am to watch him.
“I also played volleyball, but at 14 I had to make a choice. Goalkeeper or volleyball? I chose goalkeeper.”
Jose is 193 centimetres tall, Kiko 190cm, two giant sons of parents who moved from Extremadura to work in a Catalan factory.
Casilla chose right and rose through the ranks with Roberto Soldado, Callejon, Juan Mata, Javi Garcia and Felipe Luis.
“[Madrid coach] Fabio Capello liked to have three goalkeepers in his first team and I was the third,” he said. “I was very young but training with Zidane, Beckham, Roberto Carlos. Zidane gave me his boots after the first training session. I still have them in a little museum at home.
“Beckham and Roberto Carlos practised their free kicks against me, two of the best in the world but Beckham was better, more accurate. I spent a lot of time picking the ball up, but Iker Casillas always gave me encouragement and I’d watch him train before I started with the first team, watch him trying to save from Figo and the other super cracks.”
Casilla wanted to play, not practise. He played for Madrid’s C and B teams, but not enough.
“The competition is so high and I wanted to play. So I left,” he said.
“I went to Espanyol in 2007 and made my first team debut in 2008, but I was second or third choice. I played with Dani Jarque who was named captain just before he died [of a heart attack in 2009, aged 26]. The fans still sing, clap and cheer for him in the 21st minute of every game. It was a tragedy when he died.”
As he celebrated Spain’s 2010 World Cup win, Andres Iniesta revealed a shirt dedicated to Jarque.
Tonight, Casilla and Iniesta are likely to start in the same team, but Casilla was not at Espanyol when Jarque died.
“I went on loan to Cadiz for two years,” he said. “Loved it. The fans are crazy and really live for their team. Then to Cartagena in the second division. You keep improving as a goalkeeper.”
He returned again to Espanyol in 2011 where manager Mauricio Pochettino, now at Tottenham, gave him his chance and he fought for the No 1 shirt with Christian Alvarez and Carlos Kameni.
Last season was his first as undisputed No 1 and he recently played his 100th game for Espanyol for which the fans unfurled a large banner of congratulations.
Casilla is speaking from Vigo, the vast fishing port where he is likely to make his debut this evening against world champions Germany, who will be without their own injured keeper Manuel Neuer.
Such is the propensity of Spain manager Vicente Del Bosque – “he’s really tranquil but you listen because he’s won it all as a player and a coach” – to play all squad players in friendlies, Casilla’s debut would still have likely happened had De Gea not injured a finger in training on Friday.
“He’ll be fine for Manchester’s [United’s] next game,” he said. “I did the same injury last year and played though it, but I didn’t sleep at night.”
Vigo is also the city where Casilla made his greatest save last season, against local heroes Celta – one widely compared to Gordon Banks’ for England against Brazil in the 1970 World Cup.
Spain was beginning to notice Espanyol’s emerging goalkeeper, with excellent reflexes and a similar style to De Gea. Catalonia had already noticed the stopper who wears his own lucky number – 13.
“The games for Catalonia are a celebration. We play at Christmas and people from every town and city come to watch. I like it,” Casilla said.
As Espanyol are more than €100 million (Dh458m) in debt and struggling on average home crowds that have slipped below 20,000, they are a selling club. Though Casilla extended his contract until 2018, his club could not refuse a big offer.
“I’m happy at Espanyol and have a great relationship with the players and fans,” Casilla said. “I also want to do the best I can in my career. I like English football, the number of games they play and the full stadiums. I’ve seen David [de Gea] do well there and it doesn’t surprise me. I like German football, too.”
But first Spain.
“I’m ready to play with all those great players,” he said. “Ready and proud to play for Spain, just like my brother.”
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