Andoni Iraola has admitted that he learnt a lot about Liverpool from former academy graduate Mikel San Jose.
The Basque has been immersing himself in the club during a whirlwind week in which he went from being in talks with Crystal Palace, to being named as the Reds’ new head coach.
As part of his media duties for LFCTV, Iraola visited Anfield to walk on the pitch, and as he looked up at the stands he recalled the chatter from his former Spain teammates about what it was like to play for Liverpool.
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Iraola learnt about Liverpool from Mikel San Jose
It speaks to the quality of Iraola as a footballer that he managed to play for the Spain national team during the best period in the country’s history.
He earned seven caps between 2008 and 2011, a period when La Roja won a European Championship and a World Cup, with Liverpool players such as Pepe Reina, Alvaro Arbeloa, Xabi Alonso and Fernando Torres stalwarts of the squad.
But as he looked up at the Main Stand, declaring: “that stand for me is crazy, the new one, the amount of people,” Iraola suggested that it was former Athletic teammate San Jose who, along with Alonso, taught him the most about his new club.
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“Liverpool has always had a lot of Spanish players,” he said. “So in our years there was always a lot of talk about the club.
“I had a couple of friends playing, obviously Xabi [Alonso], Mikel San Jose, that was my teammate, he was here in the academy for a lot of years.
“You can remember a lot of magic moments and now it’s a privilege to be able to hopefully experience them.”
Who is Mikel San Jose?
For some younger supporters, the name of San Jose may be completely new to them.
But, as Iraola points out, Liverpool had a lot of Spanish players under Rafa Benitez during the mid to late 2000s, with the Champions League-winning manager also bringing plenty of his countrymen to the youth team as well.
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San Jose was one of those who arrived as a very young player, joining from Athletic as an 18-year-old in 2007.
Though he never played for Liverpool, the centre-back went on to have a very good career in his own right, making 397 appearances for Athletic, playing six of his 11 seasons for the Basques in defence alongside Iraola.
Like Liverpool’s new boss, he also racked up seven caps for Spain before retiring in 2022, aged 33, following a spell in the Championship with Birmingham City.
Although his three years at Liverpool did not bring about much in the way of senior recognition, it clearly made a big impact on San Jose, who will no doubt be on the phone to Iraola to help out in any way that he can.
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