After finishing my second Under-17 season with the Real Sociedad Youth team, I had my first call-up from the Under-17 Spain National Team to play the World Cup in South Korea. It gave me the chance to play with great players like Bojan, De Gea and Ignacio Camacho. We did well in the tournament, getting a place in the final, but we suffered a painful defeat against Nigeria in the penalty shoot-out.

I don’t have good memories of that game, as I was one of the three players to miss from the spot-kick. But you can always learn a lesson from everything that happens in your life - even from a defeat. You must make the best of it, and everything is welcome if it helps you to improve and grow up.

There are a lot of good things in football and one of them is that it always opens doors. My moment came in June 2013 with the European Under-21 Championship. We flew to Israel with a fantastic team, with a lot of quality players on our side. To get a place on the starting eleven was a hard task. The coach Julen Lopetegui put his faith in me and I gave my all to reach the target: winning the Championship. Round by round we went all the way to the final in Jerusalem against a great Italy side, and finally we won the title: my first big trophy ever!!

 

In that final not all our sensations were new: nerves throughout the day, the pre-match chat with the coach, the game… we experienced something similar in the Korea 2007 World Cup. But fortunately the new feelings came in with the final whistle as we won the game and got the title. We were so proud and our happiness overflowed during the celebrations.

Thanks to a team with great individual quality - but also supportive and with a really good atmosphere- we won a title that will be very special forever. It was my first big title and also a deserved reward after the defeat at the 2007 Under-17 World Cup tournament in Korea.