In anticipation of Liverpool’s Champions League match against Arsenal, former Liverpool midfielder SUSO reflected on training with a teenage Martin Odegaard, his scouse “family,” and winning two Europa Leagues with Sevilla.
On Tuesday, when Sevilla hosts Arsenal in the Champions League, it will be like a reunion for Martin Odegaard and Suso.
The Spain international was a part of Rafa Benitez’s Spanish revolution as the Norwegian prodigy, then 15 years old, trained with the Liverpool club before signing with Real Madrid in January 2015.
At the time, he was the hottest commodity around. The Sevilla winger said this about tonight’s opponent: “He was with us for about a week.”
The shоck оf his blоnd hair and the fact that he was left-handed made him stand оut, just as they dо nоw. As a left-fооter, I tend tо fоcus mоre оn the оther lefties. Clearly, he was gifted in many ways.
At the time, Suso was only 21 years old, so he was still getting acclimated to the scouse accent of his teammate Jamie Carragher and the early dinner calls from his “Liverpool family,” with whom he maintains regular contact.
The two players haven’t run into each other since. While Odegaard’s playing time was limited at Madrid, he has thrived as captain of the Arsenal.
Suso joined Liverpool not long after Benitez left, but he blossomed as a player at Milan and then won two Europa Leagues with Sevilla.
Though Liverpool served merely as a springboard to his later achievements in Italy and Spain, the city holds special meaning for him.
I could have gone to live with the English family of someone who worked for the club when I joined at the tender age of 16, or I could have gone with a family member and had my own apartment.
When we approached Rafa for advice, he recommended that we stay with an English family so that we could better integrate into society and pick up the language.
They handled me like a pro. Dee and Phil were a mother and father with three boys named Simon, Robert, and Paul. Two were a little older than me, and the youngest was my age.
“They were such a sweet family. At first, I had to be told that, yes, it is indeed time to go down and eat now when supper was served at 7pm.
I finally broke down and said, “I can’t eat that early! At first it was challenging, because it was a foreign culture, for them to preserve some and I would reheat it later.
I’m still in touch with the kids and we chatted right before last year’s Europa League match against Manchester United. We finally met up after I secured tickets for them. They became my second set of parents. They took excellent care of me.
Xabi Alonso, Alvaro Arbeloa, and Fernando Torres were not the only young Spaniards brought in to bolster the senior squad. Dani Pacheco, Francis Duran, Antonio Barragan, and Mikel San Jose also joined the team.
Milan’s revitalization initiative under Adriano Galliani, before the German moved to Liverpool.
I wish I could have worked with Klopp, he says. See how he turned Liverpool into a world-class powerhouse from a just competent squad.
He claims to be an avid Liverpool supporter and also a Milan fan, for whom he was “contentissimo” after scoring twice in his debut Milan derby.
When the home team plays, the stadium is decked out in red, and when the away team plays, the stadium is decked out in blue, making the derby unique. And even if you’re “away,” you’re still in your own locker room, as the San Siro has three: one for Milan, one for Inter, and one for visiting teams.
Before being recruited by Sevilla, Suso played 145 games in Serie A, where he scored 27 goals and sent out 31 assists. He made his Spain debut under Julen Lopetegui.
After joining in January of 2020, he won the Europa League in just six months, scoring the game-winning goal in the semi-finals against Manchester United.
Simon, Robert, and Paul, his English “brothers,” will now begin calling.
‘Yes, I had a lot of texts,’ he says with a grin, confirming our suspicions. “Many Liverpool fans were ecstatic,” the manager said, “and the same thing happened to me in the previous Europa League when many Liverpool fans wrote to me [after Sevilla eliminated United].”
Sevilla would rather not compete in the Europa League this season. Under new coach Diego Alonso, Sevilla’s 10thmanager in a decade, the team has started with two draws against Lens and PSV Eindhoven and needs a win against Arsenal to stay on course for qualification.
It wоn’t be eаsy fоr him tо beаt the teаm led by the Nоrwegiаn prоdigy he wоrked with when he wаs 15 yeаrs оld.
He believes that they have a good chance of winning the Champions League and calls them “one of the main candidates.”
As their coach has learned from the best and is now demonstrating, “because they are playing so well.”