Ander Herrera hasn’t been able to play much this season for Paris Saint-Germain due to injury, but during a recent video chat with PSG and journalist Ambre Godillon, the Spaniard’s love for the club is obvious.
Wearing a PSG shirt and speaking very good French, Herrera is the latest to check-in via the “Allo” video series, which features players sharing with fans what they’re doing during this period of confinement and their desire to return to the pitch.
Herrera’s conversation is unique because it’s his first season in the French capital after joining last summer on a free transfer from Manchester United.
The 30-year-old midfielder answered questions about what a typical day is like for him now during the coronavirus crisis, how he keeps in contact with his teammates, and whether or not he’ll be able to enjoy the first league championship of his career despite Ligue 1 being shut down early. The Spain international also shared a positive message for PSG supporters.
Godillon: How are you finding confinement?
Herrera: I think, like for everyone else, it’s a difficult situation. Like I said before, it’s difficult. It’s very, very weird for everybody, especially for us because we like to play, we like to go to training every day and we can hardly do any exercise, because we have to stay at home. It’s hard, but we have to adapt. We have to be sensitive to the world situation and that’s the way it is. We can’t do anything else then wait, be active and positive for the future.
Godillon: And what is a typical day for Under Herrera? What do you do?
Herrera: Yes, we try to be active, like I said before, to be positive. And with my three-year-old daughter, we try to do a lot of sports, to do a lot of games. And I also have a baby. Honestly, she can’t do many things but with the other one yes. We try to find activities and do the schooling too. In the morning I try to do some exercise, and if I can’t do it in the morning because it’s not possible with the girls, I try to do it when she goes to sleep, and for my wife to it’s the same thing, we adapt. It’s difficult for everyone, but I think we can’t complain.
Godillon: I don’t know if you’re taking French lessons during the confinement, but your French is getting better every day.
Herrera: Thanks a lot! I didn’t think it would be like that after a month or a month and a half without being around friends. That means you can’t talk, you can’t practice. So really it should be worse.
Godillon: Do you have any contact with your teammates? How do you keep in touch with them?
Herrera: Yes, we talk on the WhatsApp group, also with the Spanish speaking players. We’re talking about the situation, about what’s going to happen, if we’re going to play, about the canceled championship. But we have a lot of questions and not a lot of answers.
Godillon: We’ve learned that the championship has been stopped. We don’t yet know what the future will bring. You, it’s your first season in Paris. It’s all stopped. How are you living it, what is your feeling?
Herrera: It’s a feeling of sadness. Because I enjoy playing with PSG a lot, living in Paris, going every day to the Camp des Loges and honestly, I enjoyed it a lot over seven months and it’s very sad….I think we have a very, very strong, very united squad and we have a lot of players who are team players, who think about the team. Even the players who are the stars of the team were very focused to make it the best season possible. We won against Dortmund, everybody was very happy, very optimistic for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, it’s all over now. It’s over, we can’t train, we can’t play. We can’t have the season we dreamed of. It’s very, very, very weird. I talked about it with my friends. And if someone had told us three months ago that all this would happen…You couldn’t have believed it. Therefore, we must be very sensitive, as I said, to the world situation, with everyone, because the first and most important thing is everyone’s health. But it’s inevitable, to think that we enjoy playing football, and now, that we can’t play anymore. And I think that for the fans, the PSG fans, it’s the same thing. Because everyone after Dortmund was very very…happy. But we were happy and also optimistic with the squad spirit we had created.
Godillon: The championship is over and Paris Saint-Germain are champions. Will you still be able to enjoy the title?
Herrera: Yes, but it’s not the same thing. We want to win things on the field. Of course, we deserve to have the title, because we were the best, the best team, we played very well. We played a lot of matches with a lot of respect for all the opponents and we deserve it. But we want to win things on the field. And also the Cups. The two cup finals, that’s true. And we have to play the finals. We want to win the Cups on the field.
Godillon: I wanted to ask you if you had a message to pass on to those who are watching us?
Herrera: Yes, to all those at home, we’re the first to wish to go back to training, to come back and represent the club. Thank you very much for all the messages we receive every day on social media. I hope and wish that this situation will be over soon. The first thing, as I said before, is health, to be at home, to be very careful, because we don’t know exactly what the virus is, so we have to take every precaution.
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