"He seems like a cold person. But he is an impressive worker," they say from Manchester about the Spanish goalkeeper David de Gea (Madrid, 1990). At 32, De Gea played his 400th game in the Premier League on Sunday. On Thursday he will defend for the third He once scored the rival goal at the Camp Nou. He doesn't know what it's like to beat Barcelona at the Blaugrana Coliseum. On each of his two visits, one with Atlético and the other with Manchester United, he conceded three goals.
As a child De Gea already wanted to be a goalkeeper. He dreamed of standing in a final and stopping all the goals so that his team would be champion. The clearest example was at home. His father, José de Gea, was a Getafe goalkeeper in the 1980s. He is the one he calls when the games are over. “His mother, Mariví, also participated in his training. She worked at the town hall and when she joined Atlético at the age of 13, she took him to training every day. When he went to live in Majadahonda because he combined the training of the subsidiary with those of the first team, he came to see him to bring him the tuppers and he did not miss a game, ”Ángel Jesús Mejías, former goalkeeper coach at Atlético, explained to this newspaper. .
But not everything was sewing and singing. “He had growth problems when he was a cadet and was stopped for six months in treatment to recover because his knees hurt a lot. We decided to keep it. We are not wrong”, adds Mejías. Now De Gea measures 1.92 meters.
With his parents he spent the summer in a family home located in Elx. Perhaps that is why his idol was always goalkeeper Willy Caballero, who played for the Elche team for five seasons. Before joining the Premier League, Caballero signed for Málaga. There Mejías also left to exercise him. “I remembered that David liked Caballero a lot. I wanted to present it to him, we even arranged a meeting at an airport when David joined the first team”, says Mejías. It was on September 30, 2009 when the stars aligned in favor of De Gea.
Sergio Asenjo left summoned with the U-20 team to the World Cup in Egypt. The starting goalkeeper, Roberto, was injured in the Champions League against Porto. And Quique Sánchez Flores turned to De Gea. At the age of 19, he debuted with the first team and on October 3, 2009, he made his debut at the Calderón, where he saved a penalty in a 2-1 win over Zaragoza. "I'm going to have a difficult time," Asenjo said when he returned. He was not wrong. De Gea, in his initial course in the First Division, was awarded as Revelation Player. He also added his first title under the sticks, the European Super Cup against Inter Milan.
Then he came to the under-21 of Luis Milla. “I was lucky to enjoy him for four years. He had a very good physique, he was tall but also very agile. Perhaps he lacked some command due to his shyness, but even so we saw in him a spectacular talent, ”Milla points out to La Vanguardia. That team won the European under-21 in Denmark in 2011, a title that De Gea had already won in the under-17. "He got along very well with players like Muniain," added Milla.
That same year Manchester United knocked on his door. In his entire career Sir Alex Ferguson only missed two Manchester United games. One in 2000 for his son's wedding. The other time? The day he went to see De Gea in situ at an Atlético-Valencia. He needed 65 minutes to make up his mind. United paid 29 million euros and De Gea, Edwin van der Sar's replacement, became the most expensive transfer for a goalkeeper in the Premier League.
Nor did it take long to gain the trust of Van Gaal, Mourinho or Solskjaer. Given the rumors that they placed him in Barcelona, who considered signing him after the departure of Valdés, United renewed him in 2013 for two more seasons. At that time the goalkeeper had already started a sentimental relationship with the singer Edurne who in 2022 gave birth to their daughter, Yanay.
Athletic at heart, De Gea was tempted by Real Madrid. The desire to be close to his family won out on the rivalry. However, the script about his signing had a surreal movie ending. Everything was prepared in the summer of 2015 for the white club to announce with fanfare at 12 midnight on the last day of the market the arrival of the man chosen to take over from Iker Casillas. There was no signing. Manchester sent the contract papers at 11:59 p.m., and left Madrid without time to send it to LaLiga.
In the national team Vicente del Bosque included him in the pre-list for the 2010 World Cup. Valdés' injury led to his official call-up for Brazil 2014 as the third goalkeeper. Luis de la Fuente currently has Miguel Ángel Spain in his coaching staff. “He knows De Gea well. He was with me training the goalkeepers in the sub-21 ”, adds Milla. Will De Gea compete again in the absolute? Will he return to Spain? His contract with United, with whom he has won six titles, ends on June 30. “First it will be up to Ter Stegen to measure himself. They are two goalkeepers of the highest level. You will see a great football match, both are in a great moment”, predicts Milla.
