Portal de Totana
www.portaldetotana.com
It is a common misconception that the flow of people between the UK and Spain is one way traffic, but the slightest scratch of that surface and you will find that there are Spaniards aplenty among the tourists and…..sit down….some working over there. Now, most football fans will shout out the names of global superstars including Silva, De Gea, Fabregas, Mata and that Guardiola chap but there’s also one from our own community who is making steady progress in the Premiership as a coach.
I met Pablo Santis Mandiola in his hometown of Totana on a Friday night in November surprisingly. He had been given special dispensation to attend the wedding of his cousin on the weekend that his work colleagues were facing a resurgent Chelsea team. When he walked into the restaurant for our interview he was greeted like a celebrity by staff and customers alike and it was clear to see that he is a very popular character here.
Pablo is Chilean by descent and is the son of the former Chilean International striker Fernando Santis Mandiola. Fernando came to Spain after the 1984 Olympics, which was the culmination of a season in which he had scored 35 goals, when he was signed by Las Palmas and helped them to gain promotion into La Liga. He subsequently joined Cartagena and played for them until his retirement in 1992.
Although
Pablo was born in Chile he was brought to Spain one month later and the family
decided to make their life here after Fernando’s playing career ended, viewing
the opportunities in Europe far greater for the family. He began coaching the
Cartagena U18 and U19 squads and was soon approached by Olimpico Totana to
become their head coach. At this stage Pablo, who is one of three brothers, was
also making ground as a player and played locally for Lorca and Elche before
moving back to Chile in his quest to play professional football.
As
things were not going as well as Pablo had hoped he decided to change tack and
to start studying to become a coach. After passing his Sports Science exams
Pablo took and passed his football coaching badges which led him to a job in
the leisure centre in Totana and managing the fitness program in the Olimpico
Totana Academy set up.
Pablo
realised that if he really wanted to open doors around the world that he needed
to go and live in the UK. As his Sports Science studies had involved a lot of
English he felt that this was an excellent chance to escape the rut he felt he
was stuck in and learn the language too. Pablo’s girlfriend, Miriam, was also
in a position where she could make the move and knew that a better command of
English would help her in her pursuit of a teaching career (now in full flight
in Totana).
The
couple left Totana and moved to London with €2000 and set about finding work
before their meagre amount of cash was swallowed up by London. Pablo found work
cleaning and working as a pot man in bars and Miriam enrolled on a full time
English course as well as working as a Nanny and teaching Spanish.
One
night Pablo saw a DJ being paid and saw an opportunity to earn money from what
had been a hobby during his teenage years in Spain. He started to push himself
as a DJ and eventually was given a trial and subsequently a residency in a gay
club in Soho. With the wolf now being kept from the door Pablo returned to his
first love and completed his Masters Degree in High Performance Football.
Towards
the end of his Masters studies Pablo struck up a conversation with a mature
student on the same course. Over the last few weeks of their degree the two
became good friends and Pablo was surprised to discover that his new friend was
the club doctor at FC Barcelona (yes, the one with Messi, Suarez etc). One year
later Pablo received an unexpected call from the doctor. FC Barcelona had bought
500 GPS devices from a company in Almeria which track the players movements and
feedback useful information to the coaches and fitness staff. The company and
the club needed help and the doctor introduced Pablo to them and assured him
that by working with them he would open a lot of doors for himself.
Pablo joined the Almerian company and set up the systems for FC
Barcelona. Other clubs were keen to use this technology and Pablo was working
with elite football clubs across Europe. His work led him to Watford FC and
here he made a contact with the Academy coach Armand Kavaja. After a few
meetings talking about different ways of training and football, Armand received
a phone call appointing him as head coach to the Watford FC ladies team. His
first appointment as head coach was to name Pablo as his assistant.
In
January 2018 Marco Silva was sacked as Watford’s first team coach and fellow
Spaniard Javi Gracia was appointed. Pablo saw this as an opportunity to move on
to working with the men and asked for a meeting with Juan Solla (Gracia’s right
hand man) and told him that he felt he could do a job for him helping with two
of their injured stars in Gerrard Deulofeu and Nathaniel Chalobah.
Pablo analyses the two players and wrote a report on their injuries for Solla. He was called in and showed how the staff worked and, although he was impressed, Pablo felt he could improve their systems and started to collaborate on a twice weekly basis with Solla watching training and offering his advice.
At the end of the first year Pablo was invited to Solla’s house for dinner as a show of gratitude for his hard work. Solla also told Pablo that he intended to help him in his quest to join the clubs staff. In July 2019 Pablo received the call and was appointed as a Performance Analyst.
Meeting with Pablo you get a real sense of his determination and cannot help feeling anything but pleased for him that he has achieved his goal of working in football at the highest level. But you wouldn’t be surprised to know that he has even higher ambitions now. Even though he is the only member of the non-coaching staff who works with the players Pablo wants to go on to work in a more tactical role rather than his current physicality position and ultimately to be a coach.
On
a personal level Pablo is an engaging character and a smile is never far from
his face. Where many of us expats are a long way from moving back to the UK,
Pablo views it as the land of opportunity and feels that he would probably not
have fulfilled his potential if he had stayed here. Out of curiosity I finally
asked Pablo whether he considered himself to be a Chilean or a Spaniard and his
answer surprised me, he said “I consider myself a citizen of the world”.
Source: Totana.net
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