Nacho: "I'm in the best moment of my life"

Good things, of course, are said to come in threes.

For Nacho this summer, that certainly rings true.

In June, he lifted the UEFA Champions League trophy in London, as Real Madrid captain. Little more than one month later, he was hoisting aloft another title, this time in Berlin, as a UEFA European Championship winner with Spain. In between, Nacho was confirmed as a marquee signing at Al Qadsiah, the newly promoted and purposeful Roshn Saudi League side.

So, sitting now at his current club’s home in Al Khobar, Nacho’s wide smile tells its own story. But the long-time Real Madrid star, one of the most decorated footballers around, still chooses to reinforce the personal fulfilment.

“The moment that makes me the proudest of in my career is the present,” Nacho tells the Saudi Pro League. “Right now, I am very happy with everything I have done with my lifelong club, Real Madrid. I have been a champion with my country's national team this summer; it has been fundamental for me.

“I am involved in a new project that has put everything into coming here, both for me and my family. So, I can say that I am in the best moment of my life, and I am very proud of it.”

Nacho’s career is stacked with prideful entries. A one-club man until his summer switch, the Spanish defender spent 23 years at Real Madrid, winning basically every club trophy on offer. There were 26 in all.

The remarkable roll of honour reads: six UEFA Champions Leagues, five FIFA Club World Cups, five Spanish Super Cups, four La Liga titles, four UEFA European Super Cups and two Copa del Reys.

Having signed up to Real Madrid’s youth academy in 2001, aged 10, Nacho departed the club 23 years later. He debuted for the senior team in 2012, when Al Nassr’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Al Ittihad’s Karim Benzema shared the dressing room. He went on to play 364 matches.

But, with legendary status secure, Nacho wanted a change.

“I had been feeling the need for a long time that I needed to try a new experience,” he says. “I spoke to my club about it several months ago and when the season ended, we solved it. It wasn’t an easy decision because leaving the club of my life has been very difficult, but I had thought it a lot and I needed a change, that radical change.”

It helped he had a former Real Madrid sounding board already at Al Qadsiah. Michel, who last season as manager masterminded the team’s march to the First Division League title, was a six-time La Liga winner with the Spanish giants. He collected a multitude of other trophies, too, including back-to-back UEFA Cups.

Now in Al Khobar, the rekindled connection with his compatriot runs deeps.

“I have only been working with him for [a few] weeks, and he is how I have known him,” Nacho says. “It's true that he has never been my coach directly, but I did know him from the Real Madrid youth academy.

“When he called me to come here to the club, things were much easier. I have the same desire that he has, so that is what is important: we both improve the team, which is what really matters here, and together we can do good things.”

Decision made, and UEFA Euro 2024 winner’s medal added to his trophy room, Nacho eventually joined up with his new manager and teammates last month. He was installed immediately as club captain, while the transition from Spain to Saudi Arabia has been made as smooth as possible.

Even if the summer heat, and the nighttime Saudi lifestyle has taken a little getting used to.

“I am very happy,” Nacho says. “I said it many months ago, I needed a completely different experience to the one I have had in my entire life and that’s what happened: a new country, a new culture. They have welcomed us very well, both my family and me. The truth is that today we are very happy because we have gotten used to it very quickly and they are treating us very well.

“As I told you, I feel very comfortable from the first day. I feel very calm in the dressing room with people who treat you with a lot of affection, both here at the club and on the street. I'm especially excited about the Al Qadsiah project.”

Most definitely, the project is compelling. One of the most ambitious in the RSL, too. Marking their return to the Saudi Arabian top flight for the first time since 2021, Al Qadsiah were among the most forthright clubs in the summer transfer market.

Alongside Nacho, they brought in the likes of former Arsenal, Barcelona and Marseille striker, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Belgium international goalkeeper Koen Casteels, Uruguay international midfielder Nahitan Nandez, Mexican international forward Julian Quinones, coveted Argentine midfielder Ezequiel Fernandez, and a host of other overseas talents.

In the domestic market, Al Qadsiah added genuine quality including the returning Ali Hazazi and Saudi international Qassem Lajami. The substantial recruitment has allowed the team to begin the 2024-25 RSL with two wins from two: an opening 3-0 victory against Al Fateh and a 1-0 triumph at Al Raed.

The future, both immediate and long-term, looks bright.

“It's a new project, it's a project where we have a lot of foreign players, with players who have a lot of potential here in the Saudi Pro League,” Nacho says. “A new project that is different from the one I have had all my life, with ambition for the future, which is what is important. And, although we are starting from scratch, we want to go very far soon.

“It's true that the project I have come to is for a team that's going up from the [second tier], but anyway, we have renewed the whole team; we must start getting to know each other quickly to play well in the matches and we are working on it.”

Nacho, now 34, feels integral to that. It is a role he recognises, expects even. After all, he is used to it.

“Above all, I want to show humility, professionalism, and dedication - it’s essential to staying in a sport,” he says. “I have been showing it all my life, in a club as important as Real Madrid and now I want to do it here in my new club.

“I want to contribute the most from my experience of everything I know when I'm on the pitch. Above all, giving security to the teammates I have around me is what a defender must do and to take on that leadership as captain, which is also important for the club.”

Al Qadsiah seem poised to have an important part to play in this season’s RSL. Maybe, sometimes, good things can come in more than threes.

“I am an ambitious player,” Nacho says. “I like to win. And I hope the next dream that we can fulfill will be to win a title with the Al Qadsiah.”

To hear more from Nacho, on adapting to life in the Kingdom, Al Qadsiah's fans, his thoughts on the club’s young Saudi stars and what he wants to impart as captain, check out the video below.