#gonna make a seperate post for the article with his coaches because it's rather long

[pedripics]

struggling to breathe from inflating a mattress is actually very pedri 😭 but if it’s not asking too much, could you post that and the other one of his coaches? 🩷

Pedri, from inflating mattresses "with his lungs" to being the benchmark for Spain

(via Relevo - November 2022)

Fran and Dani, his two best friends, reveal the other side of the Canarian.

Pedri surprised the football world in the summer of 2021, when he played in the European Championship at the age of just 18 with the composure of a veteran. Now he is one year older, although the age on his ID card has little to do with his real experience: he has already made 14 appearances for Spain (there are up to nine players on Luis Enrique's list with fewer international caps than him).

How does the Canary Islander ensure that none of this goes to his head? That is an answer best answered by Fran and Dani, his childhood friends with whom he has played football since he was a child and with whom he is remains very close. "What stands out most about Pedri is how he is with the people around him. He is still the same as when he was little, he is the same child", says Dani. "That's what is reflected on the pitch: patience, poise, maturity… What he transmits on the pitch, he also has off it. He's a normal, humble 'kid'… I value him for that, for the great person he is, apart from the talent he has as a footballer", assures Fran.

One of his virtues on the pitch is his endurance. This virtue comes from his past in athletics, although he also trained his lung capacity in his spare time: "There was one time when the two of us stayed overnight at a friend's flat. We had an inflatable mattress but we didn't have a pump… Pedri was clever and said he could inflate it with his lungs. We were freaking out, saying that he was never going to inflate it in his life because the mattress was easily 1.80 meters long. He started inflating it and by the time we realised, he had already inflated it. But then at night, when we were sleeping, you could hear a whistling sound because he was suffocating from blowing so much. I couldn't sleep," Dani laughs. In addition to football and athletics, Fran says that Pedri had other passions in his childhood: "We loved everything with wheels: roller skates, bicycles, skateboards… We used to hang around our village".

In terms of football, he was always a fan of the Blaugrana. "When we were little, his father was president of the Barça fan club in Tegueste. I remember that once they brought the Champions League, the League and the Cup. It was a great moment for us," says Fran. Their photo with the trophies of Guardiola's treble leaves little doubt about their Barcelonismo…

The story of Dani, Fran and Pedri is that of three friends who have come from the humble pitches of their village to the biggest stage of all, a World Cup. "I met Pedri at the school, in Tegueste, at the age of three, because we both started football very early. We used to go to the pitch, Dani, him and me. We would go whenever we had free time and especially on Sundays, because a lot of people, usually older than us, would get together. Everyone was amazed by Pedri", recalls Fran about the group of friends' childhood in Tegueste, the municipality on the island of Tenerife where they grew up.

Although they try to lead the same life as always, they are aware that everything has changed a lot since Pedri is one of the best Spanish players. "At the beginning we didn't see everything that was happening to us as normal, but little by little we have been adapting. It's been very quick, time flies. We are now aware of it. Before it was difficult for us to understand it, but today we understand it".

For them, it is an honour to have Pedri as a friend: "He deserves it, he has worked hard".

The World Cup is a new dream come true for this group of friends who are looking forward to seeing Pedri lift a World Cup one day. They were just eight years old when Iniesta scored that goal. "It's a source of pride for him, for everything he has built, for his family… They have worked hard, he deserves it", they conclude.