Pepe Reina is back at Villarreal, the club he left to move to Anfield back in 2005, and the Spanish international is still going strong at the ripe old age of 41
Former Liverpool star Pepe Reina has admitted to being left rocked by the weather on Merseyside after joining the club from Villarreal back in 2005.
Reina, who came through Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy, is now back at Villarreal for a second spell. The 41-year-old made more than 100 appearances in his first stint with the Yellow Submarine, and is now back after a European tour which saw him spend more than a decade and a half in England, Germany and Italy.
That first move away from his homeland provided a bit of a culture shock, though. Just 23 at the time, Reina was one of the first signings made by Rafa Benitez as Liverpool looked to kick on from their Champions League win.
In eight years at Anfield, the goalkeeper missed just 19 league games. In order to do so, though, he had to first overcome the culture shock that was the climate of his new home city.
“I moved on to what has been perhaps the most important sporting spell of my career, at the club where I competed best, where I felt best on a personal and collective level, in terms of competitiveness,. spent eight wonderful years in Liverpool,” Reina told LALIGA WORLD ahead of Villarreal’s meeting with Sevilla on Saturday.
“I spent two weeks looking at my wife and saying, “What is this?” We came from somewhere where the average temperature was 25 degrees but there, in July, it rained non-stop for two weeks. I was aghast.
“I didn’t expect it and it was difficult to adapt to all that. It was difficult because I was still a kid; I was 23 years old. In the end, though, though it can be difficult to adapt, you adapt to everything when you are doing well, when you are happy, when you are comfortable and when you are valued.”
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Reina’s return to Spain has seen him fulfil a different role to the one he occupied at Anfield. After playing more than half of his team’s league games last season, he has featured more in cup competitions under Marcelino this term, but has admitted to being “terrified” when he steps out onto the pitch these days.
“The sense of responsibility is much greater, the expectations are much greater, and the fears are greater,” he added. “Because people are waiting for you to slip up. You are 41 years old and people are like that: waiting for you to make a mistake to say that you are old and that you have to retire, and you have to fight against that. It is what it is.
“Well, sometimes experience makes you know how to deal with mistakes better, but you can’t get rid of the noise around you. And I hope it lasts for a long time, because that will mean that I am still passionate about what I do.”
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