Adrián Bernabé's scars
Life leaves scars of different kinds on people. In the dressing room of the Olympic football team, Adrián Bernabé has a special scar, a scar that has made him grow as a person and as a footballer, a scar over his heart.
When the young Bernabé set off for Italy to fulfil his dream of signing his first professional contract, he never imagined that this would be the beginning of a life-changing event. During his medical with his new club Parma, he was diagnosed with a heart defect: ‘It was a very difficult moment, when I was about to sign my first professional contract and take the step to the elite. On the second day i was there I had this problem, which really got me down a lot.
It was a very tough event to take in, as he was still very young and alone in Italy without the company of his family, whom he had to inform of what had happened by telephone: ‘I was there alone with my agent and the news was quite hard because it caught me off guard and far away from my family and I had to tell them by phone. It was a difficult moment because the news they gave us at the beginning, before doing any tests, was not the most positive’.
Now, after all this journey and several scars from operations that have left their mark, Adrián Bernabé is facing the biggest challenge an athlete can have, to represent his country at the Olympic Games: ‘It's a dream. I remember when I was little, I liked all sports and I watched them at home, and now to be able to participate in the Olympics is a dream’.
