INTERVIEW: Eduardo Camavinga on his journey to becoming the heir to the Real Madrid midfield throne

On a manicured lawn in front of the main entrance to Real Madrid’s massive training complex on the outskirts of the Spanish capital, Eduardo Camavinga poses for photographs.

The mountain air of the nearby snow-capped Sierra Guadarrama is rich, the sun is shining and there is a soothing silence: this is a footballer’s paradise, as far from where it all began for the 20-year-old as it gets. imagine.

‘I wasn’t even two years old. I don’t remember anything about it,’ she says of spending the first months of his life in a refugee camp in Angola until his parents, Celestino and Sofía, took him and his siblings to France.

We haven’t talked much about it. I only know that things were difficult in Angola because of the war and that my family came to France to make a better life. I have seen photos of when we arrived in France and I am still a baby.

Last May, Celestino and Sofía were in the Champions League final to see their son win the tournament in his first season at Real Madrid. ‘Football is my life,’ he says of the way his talent has transformed the fortunes of him and those around him.

He was a late substitute in a 1-0 win over Liverpool at the Stade de France, but his role on the run to the final had been huge.

When he was off the field in the return matches against Paris Saint Germain, Chelsea and Manchester City, the overall score was 4-0 for Madrid’s rival; when he was on the pitch, the balance was 8-1 in favor of Madrid.

“Those numbers are good, but it’s just a statistic,” he smiles. “When the coach puts me on, he tells me to take the ball and energize the team.”

He certainly did in the semi-final against Manchester City, with Madrid’s famous midfield three of Casemiro, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric off the pitch.

It was a run by Camavinga in the 92nd minute that led to the penalty won and scored by Karim Benzema to put Madrid in the final.

“I watched the City game on TV afterwards and it’s 99 per cent certain that Manchester City will go through and only 1 per cent that we could go through.” But Madrid is never dead, whatever the odds.

“People gave us up for lost, but here you learn to play until the final whistle and we ended up winning the final. What happened last season will stay with me for the rest of my life.

He enjoyed the exciting run to the final like any teenager feeling on top of the world. “There’s a party in the dressing room, Karim puts on the music, lots of different kinds of music, it’s time to celebrate,” she says of the atmosphere after three remarkable comebacks.

‘Usually I can sleep well after the games, but it was a bit more difficult after these games because there was a lot of emotion. I left the stadium much later than usual. But you have to sleep because there are still many games to play.

After the final, he says he even enjoyed the obligatory meet and greets at the town hall that more seasoned winners might find boring. ‘She was asking Karim: ‘Okay, what do we do now? Where do we go now?’ he says.

Changing of the guard in the Madrid midfield with Casemiro already at Manchester United and Kroos and Modric in the last season of their contract.

Camavinga will be his own player but there is nothing wrong with aspiring to emulate the other three. “I love the way he defends ‘Case’, the way Luka runs with the ball and the quality of Toni’s passes,” he says.

He also welcomes the additional competition Jude Bellingham would bring if he chose Madrid over Liverpool or Manchester City this summer.

“It is normal that the best players come to Madrid. Competition is good. It’s there now and it will always be there and I know I have to prove myself on the pitch every time I play.”

He first proved himself a dynamic seven-year-old at a tournament for his school ‘La Chatière’ in Fougères, northern France.

‘Zidane was my idol, he was all our idols! And I did the famous ‘roulette’ that I had seen in a Youtube video about Zidane’s abilities. My teacher Fatima urged my mother to get me on a team.

Despite being more fond of judo because it was his brother’s favorite sport, Eduardo’s parents enrolled him in the local Drapeau de Fougères, where he shone until Rennes signed him at the age of 11. He was in his first team at the age of 16, and at 19 Madrid had paid 40 million euros. for him.

‘My father told me that I was the person who was going to raise the family. And I’m very happy that I was able to do that. They are proud of me, ”he says.

He gives them credit for most things, including their incredible late-game energy levels. “It’s a mental thing,” he says. ‘And it’s thanks to my father, hearing his voice saying that fatigue is only in the mind!’

He used to go to see his father play amateur football in Fougeres. Dad and mom are the harshest critics of her. ‘If my father thinks I’ve had a bad game, he’s going to tell me everything he thinks about it! And on more than one occasion I have not had a good game and I thought my mother would say: don’t worry, it’s normal, you can’t always play well. But then she gives me the look, and I think, oh dear.

‘But it’s good that they both tell me the truth because it’s the way I’m going to improve. I don’t like it at the time. At first I’m angry, but then all my anger manifests itself on the pitch in a positive way.

They also help keep you grounded. When asked if his early family struggles made him recoil from some of the excesses of other players, he said: “If you have money, you can do what you want with it.” You can buy five cars and be a fantastic person. I would not go that way. I have my father nearby and if I buy too many things he’s going to kill me!

He says that he will visit Anglola this year if it is possible to do so. And he speaks out about the racism that still plagues Spanish football.

“We all need to talk about it and isolate the idiot who doesn’t like someone just because they have a different skin color, they’ll progress,” she says.

One wonders if he took a moment last May at the Champions League final to consider what an incredible journey he had been on. Then you remember your age and how, the future is so bright that there is little need to think about the past.

“I live life as it happens,” he says. ‘I just enjoyed the moment. I’ll think about it a lot more when I’m older, I’m sure. It was my first year here and I had won the Champions League. But instead of reflecting, I just want to win another one.’