BarcelonaBefore every game, Sergi Darder has a habit of calling his father to talk about football. The brain of Espanyol always listens carefully to the advice of Quique Darder, the current coach of the Artà Sports Center, a team of the Regional Preferred of Mallorca (the sixth category of state football). “A lot of people who see him play say that his way of running, driving and kicking reminds me of him,” admitted the father of the Spanish midfielder in an interview a few years ago.
Sergi is closely following the professional trajectories of both his father and his younger brother, Xavi, who is the star striker of Artà, where he has scored around 130 goals in the last three seasons. The two relatives are still at the Ses Pesqueres Municipal Camp, where Sergi started playing football. “He always knows what Artà is doing and whether I scored or not,” said his brother, who is known as Piti. Sergi is the only one of the three who has met an elite footballer who is not easy to savor. “His representative always tells us: ‘Sergi will retire and he won’t have a good time.’ It is a pity. From an early age, he suffered from everything, whether he was promoted, whether he changed teams, whether he played, whether he did well or the results. And now as a professional the same thing happens to him “, says the player’s father.
At the age of 13, Darder alternated between front and midfield positions when he packed his bags to change the town to go alone to Barcelona. “It was very difficult for me to adapt,” the midfielder admitted in an interview with ARA a year ago. “It cost him a lot, he suffered, but he was fine,” admits Piti. “The difference between the two is that he was clear that his dream was to get there, yes and no, and he worked hard, worked hard and sacrificed himself. I didn’t have the mental strength to leave everything behind and move on, “said his brother.
In the summer of 2012, Darder hoped to make the leap to the first team of Espanyol, but Ramon Planes and Mauricio Pochettino did not bet on him. A frustrating situation that he managed to redirect thanks to who he had been scout of the Spanish youth team, Josep Manel Casanova, who took him to Málaga. There he managed to reach Primera. Five years later, Espanyol repaid him by paying 8 million to Lyon to make him one of the flagship players of the Chen Yansheng era. The Mallorcan, who came from a Champions club, soon made it clear that he was a footballer who raised the performance of the midfielder considerably. However, Quique Sánchez Flores made a disastrous appearance. Quite often, he played too attached to a band or simply had a role where he went more unnoticed. “Before, in difficult situations, it was difficult to see me. I didn’t show up in a bad match, I hid a little behind everything “, said Darder a few days ago.
More daring and vertical
His situation began to change with Rubi, who knew how to understand the need to place him in the middle, give him freedom of movement and, not least, join him with good players like Marc Roca, Melendo and Granero. With them, Darder started having fun playing. But Rubi barely lasted a season. The philosophy of the relegation coaches made him an irrelevant player. Now, at the age of 28, he is living his full football. He is a more mature midfielder who leads a midfield in which the physique has been imposed on technique. Three squires, Keidi Bare, Yangel Herrera and Vilhena, protect him and allow him to develop more daring individual records. “It simply came to our notice then. He played more comfortably and more slowly, not advancing or crossing lines. I have tried to evolve and be more vertical, look ahead and, above all, have more personality “, adds Artà.
The data confirms his words: almost all of the attacking football manufactured by Espanyol currently passes through Darder’s boots. The Mallorcan is now a leading player, who appears both at the beginning of the play and near the rival area. This season he has already signed six assists, double the three he had handed out in the 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2018-19 seasons. He has also scored three goals.
The audacity he is showing this year is also helping him to break his best records in three key facets of the game: this is the season in which he has had the most waterings (1.6 per game, almost three times the 0.6 of the course of the descent); passes (44, three more than the 41 of his first year); and completed long balls (3.7, above the 3.2 of 2017-18). The current Darder, therefore, dribbles, associates and seeks more play at length than before. He is also the player who has completed more drives of five meters or more in this League (371). Symptoms that show the increase in confidence you have experienced. “By age and situation, it’s up to me, but I still have to improve,” he admits.
Football change responds to a handful of factors, some of which are off the field. “It simply came to our notice then. It can usually be associated with a more technical subject, but on a physical and tactical level it is also a spectacle “, praised Vicente Moreno. The coach sees him as a level to reach the Spanish national team, a possibility that, as ARA has learned, has not yet been transferred to the player. The good physical work done has allowed him to avoid injuries (he has only lost one game due to muscle problems in five seasons) and is also often the first player to start the pressures. The other big change came as a result of the mental work he did with a psychologist and one coach sports. “I knew he had a mental problem for many years. It affected me a lot, at the very least I missed a pass, it sank me and I lost my confidence “, he admitted to this medium. Darder has freed himself from the fears of the past and is now finally starting to enjoy football, rather than suffer.
