Santiago Cañizares: “Imagine me there in the stands at the moment of the goal. I wanted to die”

Santiago Cañizares has seen his son Lucas play only four times since he joined Real Madrid ten years ago. When he finally decided to attend a game last weekend against Linares, after being the centre of attention pre-match, he witnessed his boy make a horror mistake that lost Castilla the game. That’s according to himself after he was interviewed by Marca to record his thoughts.

Translated to English - the former Real Madrid, Valencia and Spain goalkeeper stated: “The other day I decided to go see Lucas, because in the 10 years he has been at Real Madrid I have gone to see him very few times. I have seen him live four games since he has been at Madrid.”

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He continued by adding: “and damn! The truth is that it was a beautiful match. I like division three football because it is direct with intensity on the wings. It is a football that does not have the best talent, but it is football which reminds us of the past where everyone moves forward. It was an intense and beautiful game to be honest. But at one point a ball was shot at Lucas from outside the area and it went in through under his legs. You can imagine the look on my face.”

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Addressing the away atmosphere and the mistake, he finalised by saying: “There’s no need to tell him anything, he already knows. Besides, and this is true, he doesn’t make those mistakes. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him make a mistake like that, mistakes that we have all made by the way. But damn, the one day when I go! It took me an hour to get into the ground because the people of Linares are wonderful and loving. Everyone wanted a photo or an autograph. Imagine me there in the stands at the moment of the goal. I wanted to die for him and also for myself, because there was everyone looking in the stands to see what the father’s face was like.”

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The mistake, although costly, was a common one for young keepers when they misplace their footing and leave too big of a gap between their hands. Lucas Cañizares is not error prone and has had plenty of involvement with the first team already during his Real Madrid career. He, like his dad, will know that this mistake will be nothing more than a bump in a very long road during his Madrid journey.