Luca Zidane: “When I heard about the interest, I knew right away that this was the place for me”

C.D. Leganés officially introduced Luca Zidane as a new player for the club on Wednesday. The Algerian national team goalkeeper, who joins the club after competing in the last World Cup, expressed his excitement about beginning a new chapter in Leganés.

The club’s director of soccer, Andrés Pardo, welcomed the player to kick off the presentation ceremony: “He’s a goalkeeper with a very long career, despite his age. Three playoff runs, one promotion, nearly 200 games in the Second Division… A product of the youth academies at Real Madrid, Racing, Rayo Vallecano, Eibar, and Granada—and now he’s here to embark on this new chapter with us.”

For his part, Luca began by saying, “Thank you to the club; I’m very happy to be here. It’s a club that has always caught my attention, and I’m really looking forward to getting started.”

Luca: “When I heard about Leganés’ interest, I knew right away this was the place”

Arrival at Leganés: “When we heard about Leganés’ interest, we knew right away this was the place. It’s a great club with very clear goals, and I’m very happy to be here. I can bring experience at this level and contribute my skills to help the team achieve its goals.”

Zinedine Zidane: “Like any father, he supports me in my decisions. I was certain about coming here to Leganés, and he’s happy—as is the whole family.”

Pressure to outperform the starting goalkeeper: “It’s part of soccer, and that’s what I love about it. Juan Soriano had a great season and is a very good goalkeeper, just like Raúl. We have three top-level goalkeepers, and I’ll try to contribute as much as possible to the team so we can achieve our goals—that’s what matters most.”

Goals: “I’m really excited and eager to get started. The first goal is Sunday’s game—to take home the three points—and that’s what matters most. We shouldn’t set long-term goals, but I’m ambitious about having a great season. I want to enjoy myself on the field, give my best, improve day by day, and help the team.”

My World Cup experience: “Every year you learn new things and improve. My time in Granada was great, and now I’m on a new path to have a good season here and help the team achieve its goals.”

Qualities as a goalkeeper: “I’m a goalkeeper with a lot of personality on the field and good game reading skills. I don’t really like to talk about myself, but I consider myself agile and quick.”

First Minutes and Adjustment: “I’ve only been here a few days—I’d only had one training session before the Tenerife game—but I knew quite a few players on the team from playing with them or facing them. I’m fully settled into the team and working well this week with my sights set on Sunday.”

Taking the leap: “That’s always on my mind. I’m an ambitious player; we all want to be in the top flight, and that’s why I came here. We have a very good team, but the most important thing is to focus on one game at a time. Every player wants to play in the First Division, and every year I’m going to fight for it.”

Three goalkeepers: “The competition is very healthy; the three of us get along very well. We help each other and give each other feedback. We’re very different goalkeepers, each with our own strengths, and through our day-to-day work, we can improve.”

International breaks: “It doesn’t affect me. It’s the only division that doesn’t stop for national team duty, and we take it in stride.”

Andrés Pardo: “He’s a goalkeeper we know very well, and he has great qualities.”

For his part, Andrés Pardo later answered questions from the media present at the event:

Franquesa’s injury: “We’re happy—last year was tough for all of us, and in the end, this is good news. He’ll be out for a few weeks, but we feared the worst. Now that the diagnosis has been confirmed, it’s not a long-term injury and shouldn’t affect our performance in that position.”

Stadium loan to Rayo Vallecano: “It’s more of an institutional matter between clubs. If we put ourselves in the other side’s shoes, we’d like someone to open the door for us. We have a good relationship on the sporting side, though what might concern us is that the field is in good condition. The rest is a club matter.”

Juan Soriano: “We have to treat this as normal; these things happen. When the season ended, we had a call with Juan’s representatives, who told us he wants to leave. From there, we have to be responsible and take action. We accepted that situation in early June and have built the roster around it. He might stay or he might leave—we’ll see what happens in the coming days.”

Deadline for Juan Soriano: “The transfer window closes. You can staff the goal with two or three goalies; we have players in the reserves who we may or may not bring up. It’s not a decision we have to make today. For the past two months, everyone has known their future and what they want from the other side. A lot can happen between now and September 1.”

Looking for another goalkeeper role: “We have to bring up a goalkeeper from the reserve team out of necessity, but he doesn’t necessarily have to be the third-string goalkeeper. Nico Lozano is with us now, and if another one comes, we’ll see. But that’s an issue that’s already been settled at the top.”

Luca’s Experience: “It has its positive side, although we won’t have him during the FIFA transfer windows, and that can be disruptive. But it’s important that we have international players who have played in a World Cup. That’s a value Luca brings. He’s a goalkeeper we’ve known since he was a kid—he’s calm under pressure and radiates a lot of energy. He’s a hard worker and trains very well, pushing himself to the limit. He has incredible qualities: the ability to read the game when coming off his line, great reflexes, agility, and quick feet… We had no doubts, and neither did he.”

Departures: “As for the contracts, just as we honor them, they include release or exit clauses. It doesn’t affect us much; we’re moving forward with the signings we’ve planned. The players we believe should leave know it. If we had to sign a player tomorrow, we could do so. There are twenty days left in the transfer window, and a lot can still happen.”

Javi Hernández: “We had an option that appealed to him, and it was about to go through, but it fell through. Now he’s just another member of the squad. He can play as a center back or a fullback, and we’ll see how things go with him.”

Squad Ready to Compete: “With the team we have right now, we’re ready to compete with anyone. But this is a very demanding league, and on Sunday we’re playing against a team that was in the Champions League two years ago. There might still be two or three players yet to arrive, but with this squad we can compete with anyone—knowing that there are very strong teams out there, that we have to be ambitious but also very cautious, and that we need to be patient. There have been a lot of changes—thirteen or fourteen new players—and it’s hard for those natural chemistry and coordination to develop on their own in the first few weeks.”

Connection with Real Madrid: “I didn’t play alongside Luca, but we watched him, and that leaves a lasting impression. Then the years go by, and today we can say that we’re here together.”