The life of Bryan
The life of Bryan, of Bryan Zaragoza, goes at full speed. Just over two years ago, wearing the Granada B shirt in the Second Federation, he played in the Enrique Roca de Murcia, the same stadium he will be playing in on Saturday in the colours of Spain. Having just turned 23, this different kind of player, with a streetwise spirit, will be under the orders of Luis de la Fuente for the next two Spain matches, and he has found his place in his own style, which is becoming increasingly difficult to find in the modern game.
‘When I was a kid, all I thought about was playing in the street. Now I see very few kids playing in the street...’, he sums up almost nostalgically. ‘My life was playing football, I didn't think about anything else. I would come home from school, eat and go to play. At night I'd play, at home I'd play, I'd break things around the house... These are things that are being lost, street football is being lost a bit’.
He was a devil with the ball, dribbling like a player on the wing without any defender being able to stop this little boy who, did however, also go through a very hard time in his formative years. ‘I played eleven years in a club, Tiro Pichón. I played from the youngest age group through to the second year of youth football when they told me ‘we'll call you back’... They didn't call me back, they kicked me out and I had a hard time because that club was my life’, he explains. From adversity he found the strength to vindicate himself and get to where he is now: ‘I had grown up there, all my people were there, my friends... But I went to another club and from there, with that anger of “yes, I'm worth it, but you haven't valued me”, I started to grow and the following year I signed for Granada. From there, upwards’.
That top, the highest there is, is the national team, for which made his debut on 12 October 2023 in Seville against Scotland. ‘It was a special memory, a unique day. To make your debut with your country, with all your people... I won't forget it. Obviously, no one can forget something so special, just as he will not forget the treatment he received from Álvaro Morata. ‘I arrived shy, which was normal. I had never played for age national team age group and I came to the senior squad straight away. I'd only been in professional football for a short time and I arrived here and Álvaro (Morata) took me and said: ‘Whatever you need, I'm here’’. And it wasn´t just words, because he asked him how many tickets he needed for the game and the captain gave him eight so that his family could all go. ‘It's a gesture that I appreciated, I'm very grateful to him’.
After an impressive breakthrough with Granada, he signed for Bayern Munich and is now shining at CA Osasuna. ‘It's almost like I've started all over again to get back here. I started well and my goal was to play for the national team again. It didn't take me long to achieve it and I hope to keep my place.
He feels privileged to wear the Spain shirt, which he supported from afar during the European Championships. ‘I was already in Germany. I wanted to go to the game (the final), but I was training the next day. It was seven or eight hours by car and I couldn't get there, and I couldn't get there by plane either. I watched it at home, suffering a bit, but it was a very good victory, I enjoyed it a lot. I spent a couple of days watching Cucu and Álvaro celebrate... It was all very nice, I was very happy because there was a lot of hard work behind it’. Now he is here again, returning to the Nueva Condomina, but this to defend the national team’s colours. This is the life of Bryan, of Bryan Zaragoza.