Nacho

Written by David Álvarez, Juan I. Irigoyen, Ladislao Moñino, Jon Rivas, Rafael Pineda and Juan L. Cudeiro for El País:

At the start of the season Nacho Fernández thought his first campaign as Real Madrid captain would also be his last at the club where he has been since the age of 11. Throughout the season his performances seemed to gently decline, perhaps in preparation for a move to a lesser side, but when the pressure was at its greatest, in the decisive moments of the Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich, we saw the best of Nacho again, a player often overlooked but always reliable. “In my understanding of football there are two types of defenders, optimistic defenders and pessimistic defenders,” Carlo Ancelotti said. “He is a pessimistic defender, because he always thinks that something bad might happen. That’s why he stays focused for 90 minutes.”