We all love what we feel close, but for a great heart, the distant is also close!
The mother, Maxim Gorky
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Sara Rodríguez (44) remembers well that trip by car, ten years ago: a road ahead and her son by her side, from her house in Roquetas de Mar (Almería) to Villarreal.
The son was Álex Baena (21), today a Villarreal star but then an eleven-year-old boy who felt vertigo and sadness and at one point during the trip told his mother:
-That I don't know, that I'm getting scared and I don't know what will become of me in the Villarreal residence, far from you.
Sara Rodríguez remembers stopping the car and talking to the boy:
"It's okay, son. Try it, don't regret not trying. Think of the other children in the village, think of how many there are: none of them are having the opportunity that you are going to have.
(although deep down, the mother confesses to La Vanguardia, she herself was asking herself: 'Am I a good mother?').
In reality, the adventure had just begun, and that virtuous boy who was going to Villarreal (Real Madrid also wanted him, but the Whites had fallen asleep during the negotiations) was going to see himself eating and sleeping in the club's residence, far from home and from his siblings (he has four), a youngster studying from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and training in between.
Sara Rodríguez also remembers those conversations from a distance:
–Well, we often communicated by whatsapp. So Alex didn't hear me cry. I think there was a silent fight between the two. We made an effort so that neither of us knew that the other was having a hard time. Actually, I think he protected me more than I protected him: Álex knows that I suffered a lot, he has even told me in an interview. And people told me: 'But hey, you have more children!' And it seems that they did not understand it, that phrase does not make any sense, because that does not replace my suffering: I want all my children with me, like all mothers.
(...)
Sara Rodríguez visited La Vanguardia yesterday, and while she was speaking, her children Miquel (the eldest, physiotherapist and nutritionist) and Martina (the youngest), and also Javi, the mother's brother, were waiting for her outside. All of them will appear at the Camp Nou today to see Álex Baena, MVP of Villarreal-Osasuna last Monday (2-0), midfielder by trade, playful and creative, pride of the family and of that CD Roquetas that he frequented in his childhood , when the child came and went and saw a ball in any object:
–He drank the juice and then crushed the plastic and made it a ball. And he also made balls with the Albal paper. And I told him: 'Don't hit the walls, Alex'. And on the day of his brother Miquel's communion, he dressed in white and wanted to take the dirtiest ball. And he told me: 'I stay outside the church, shooting in the open field'.
–And now, after his debut in the First Division in 2020 and his time at Girona, in whose rise he was involved, his son is a star –he is told.
-Knows? I like to watch their games because that's how I see my son. I mean: if he is in the field for 60 minutes, or 90, well, that time I see him. And I'm not talking about great goals, I don't understand that. When he comes to hug me after a game, I ask him if he's happy. And I feel as proud of him as of his other siblings, who get university degrees and study and don't brag about their brother.
Today, Álex Baena will play for the first time at the Camp Nou.
