The president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, has sat down in the Chester de Risto Mejide to talk about much more than football. The person in charge has not shied away from controversial issues such as the dismissal of Luis Enrique as national coach or the implications of the ‘Negreira case’. But, beyond the sporting plane, the Andalusian has also remembered some of the moments that have marked his personal life.
During the interview, recorded on the grass of the Escribano Castilla Stadium in Motril (Granada), Rubiales wanted to thank his family for their support over the years. Specifically, the person in charge has referred to his three daughters, the result of his marriage with the lawyer Manuela Delicado Vega. And he has been moved to remember the moment in which one of them almost died.
“I had a terrible time, especially with one of my daughters. We were in the hospital for two weeks. It was serious, a concussion from a fall and they had to drill holes in his brain. In the end, thank God, she didn’t need it. She had it next to the cerebellum and she was close to dying, ”Rubiales recalled.
For the president of the RFEF, those two weeks have been the worst of his life, because he feared the worst. “We were there on the floor for two weeks. I held his hand and said ‘let’s walk there’. He only moved one leg, he was unable to. His psychomotor skills had been affected. At first the doctors didn’t tell you anything. Later, One came and told me: ‘Luis, this is going to go well’”, he recalled.
That ordeal made him stronger. He assures that the only thing that matters to him is that his daughters are healthy, and not so much all the criticism that he receives for his work as the head of Spanish football.
“People know me and know who I am. Those who know me. There will be people who think I am anything. But for your daughter to say at the age of ten that she was then: ‘I am your daughter and here I am’. The truth is that I am very proud. I also think my ex-wife has done a good job. Well, both of them,” explained Rubiales visibly moved.
During his conversation with Risto, Rubiales has also ruled on the ‘Negreira case’ and on the accusations of the president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, who assured that the leak of this information coincided with the best sporting moment for the Catalans. “Don’t know. It is true that it has come out at a time when LaLiga was receiving a lot of criticism, compared to the Premier League. What I think is that in the end a bombshell comes out covering up other news that was in the spotlight”.
The president of the RFEF does not think that the relationship with Thebes is reversible. “Two days after being elected, I receive a request for disqualification from Thebes, how am I going to sit down and talk to a man who makes that request! He is a person who lies to try to harm me and expel me from the position I hold, ”he alleges.
He has also questioned the intentionality of some of the media: “The media can help a lot or they can harm. I have suffered it. They have made me the headline that I have taken the Super Cup to Saudi Arabia so that Piqué can collect commissions ”.
Rubiales has also recognized the RFEF’s mistake during the women’s Spanish Super Cup: “It is a disastrous image. A tremendous shit.”