Dynamo assistant coach Rafael Cristobal told about his career and acquaintance with Slaviša Jokanović. The Spanish specialist also compared the weather in Qatar and Russia.
— Tell us a little about your career and how you became a coach.
— It's a long story. I started playing football early, but we were constantly moving with my family because of my father's job. I continued to play at the amateur level at the university, where I studied for a degree in physical education and sports. At the same time, I began studying to become a coach and after graduating from university, I started working as a fitness coach.
I worked for a long time in different teams in Spain. I knew all the divisions and went through from the lowest leagues to professional football. In this moment I am really happy to work at the coaching staff with Slaviša and Sasha. So this is more or less a short summary of my history.
— You have been working for 20 years in Spain. How did you meet Slaviša?
— In Spain, I worked with one of Slaviša's assistant coaches Javi Pereira. One day he called to me for a possibility to work at Fulham. This was my first time in the Premier League. I knew Slaviša, and we have been working together ever since. We understand each other perfectly. I know what he wants from me.
— Do you have a special area of responsibility at Dynamo?
— As assistant coaches, Sasha and I have to help Slaviša with the collection of information concerning methodology, analysis of our team and the opponent. We are his right hand and we try to help him in everything. In professional football, the manager has a lot of work not only on the pitch, but also outside it. And our goal is to support him comprehensively.
— Mostly, you have been working in hot countries – in the Canary Islands, Qatar, and so on. Aren’t you scared that it will be too cold in Russia?
— In Spain, I live just in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where the weather is very good all year round. In winter, the temperature does not fall below 15 degrees Celsius. But in Spain I still worked in different climatic zones. For example, in the north of the country there was even minus 5, 6 or 10 degrees in winter. So it is not new for me.
We worked for two years in Doha, capital of Qatar, and the weather was amazing there. I have never met this kind of weather before – temperatures of 45-50 degrees with 70-80 percent of humidity. It was very hard, but I faced a new experience.
— It's better here.
— Yes, it's better here. My family asks every day, «How is the weather there? Is it snowing?» And I say, «How is it snowing? We are in June, here it’s summer. The weather is nice». So it is not a surprise for me, because I was born in central Spain, where winters are so hard – there are minus 5 and minus 10. So I know what cold is.
— 10 years ago you came to Moscow with Levante for a Europa League match against Rubin Kazan. Do you have some memories? Has Moscow changed from that time?
— To be honest, I couldn’t know Moscow too much at that time, because we were coming to compete in a match of the Europa League round of 16. We visited some typical places, such as Red Square, but we didn't have any time for more, because everyone was focused on the game. We had only one hour: they brought us by bus. We got out, took some pictures and came back. It was my first visit to Moscow, and then I could not even imagine that I would come here for the second time to work and live.
— By the way, we are going to play against Rubin Kazan very soon.
— Yes, we'll play against them again. I hope we will win this time, because in that day we lost in Moscow and were relegated from the Europa League.
— Did you talk to Pepe before coming to Dynamo?
— Yes, I've heard a lot of references about him. We even have a mate with whom we worked at different times. So I've heard a lot of very good references about Pepe. We are very happy to meet him. His methodology is very similar to the one we used to work with. For us, he is a huge help in terms of language. And in general, I can single out all the members of our coaching staff – Vanya (Karandashov), Pasha (Alpatov), Dima (Izotov). I hope I haven't forgotten anyone. We find only help and kindness from all Dynamo employees.