Victor Valdes had to bide his time before making his first start for Manchester United - when he kept a clean sheet in the final game of the 2014/15 season, away to Hull - but the vastly-experienced Spanish international has had the faith of his manager ever since his emergence into senior football...
Faith can move mountains. Ask Victor Valdes, who became Barcelona’s pillar between the posts and a serial world and continental champion, all after repaying the conviction of Louis van Gaal.
When the Dutchman took the Camp Nou reins for a second time in 2002, he returned to a club still attempting to replace legendary stopper Andoni Zubizaretta. The success of van Gaal’s first stint at the club was primarily attributable to his attacking riches, rather than the steady work of goalkeeper Ruud Hesp, and his Catalonian comeback found the problem position remained unsolved.
Erratic Argentine keeper Roberto Bonano and a young Pepe Reina had shared duties prior to van Gaal’s return, and the Dutchman quickly reshuffled his pack of custodians by selling the future Liverpool goalkeeper to Villarreal, while signing German shot-stopper Robert Enke and promoting the untried Valdes from Barcelona’s B-team.
Barcelona debutant at 20
Suitably impressed by training-ground performances and the recommendation of trusted coach Frans Hoek, van Gaal handed the starlet his debut in a Champions League qualifier against Legia Warsaw. The 20-year-old’s part in a 3-0 win established him as van Gaal’s first-choice goalkeeper for the opening weeks of the 2002/03 campaign but, as Barça struggled for consistency and slipped to an embarrassing home defeat against minnows Real Valladolid, van Gaal turned to the more experienced Bonano to stabilise the situation.
Upon learning that he would be returning to the youth ranks to hone his trade, Valdes’ impassioned reaction was to storm out of the club. By this point, van Gaal had spoken publicly of a dream whereby Barcelona could one day field an entire team of homegrown players. When that fabled day came in November 2012, as 11 products of the club’s La Masia academy trounced Levante 4-0, Valdes’ position in goal – where he saved a penalty to mark the occasion - stemmed entirely from the decision van Gaal had taken a decade earlier.
Second chance
“Louis van Gaal knew even then that this was a guy he should give a second chance to,” says Spanish football expert Graham Hunter. “After so many attempts to replace Zubizaretta, it would have been easy to give up on a goalkeeper who was homebred, hadn’t cost anything and didn’t have a huge profile. They had money, they could have bought Edwin van der Sar and it would have been easy to discard homebred property after the way Victor Valdes acted, but in spite of his reputation as a disciplinarian, van Gaal didn’t. Now that it’s easy to look back on the skill, attitude, professionalism and achievements over the course of Victor’s exceptional career, I think that’s overlooked. It’s underplayed just how clearly van Gaal saw things in those days.”
Ushered back into the fold, Valdes continued to learn the ropes over the remainder of the season under Radomir Antic, after van Gaal’s second spell at the club came an abrupt end, and the subsequent appointment of Frank Rijkaard would prove integral in his career. After playing the first 45 minutes of a 2003 pre-season defeat to United in Philadelphia - in which Diego Forlan scored twice - Valdes convinced Rijkaard that he was ready to start, even after Rustu Recber had arrived on a free transfer. The Turkish international’s poor grasp of Spanish and issues around his non-EU citizenship meant he never settled in Catalonia. A year later he had returned to Fenerbahce on loan, and straight into the firing line of Reds debutant Wayne Rooney.
King of Spain, champion of Europe
Valdes, meanwhile, established himself as Barcelona’s first-choice goalkeeper and was a fixture in the Catalans’ 2004/05 La Liga triumph, but he retained doubters until he played a pivotal role in the following season’s Champions League final. “The most important (day) of my life," is how the Spaniard described his superb display against Arsenal in Paris, where a 2-1 victory provided the first major European honour of Valdes’ career.
As United supporters know all too well, he went on to lift the continent’s grandest trophy twice more, as Pep Guardiola’s Catalans passed Sir Alex Ferguson’s Reds into submission in 2009 and 2011. In a side comprised largely of attacking players who were encamped in opposition territory, Valdes mastered much of his own half. In addition to a one-on-one presence comparable with Peter Schmeichel’s and ball skills on a par with those of Edwin van der Sar, his powers of alertness and concentration made him a key component of the modern generation’s most eminent club side.
Ill-timed injury
However, in December 2012, the month after starring in the La Masia XI at Levante, Valdes stunned football with the revelation that he would leave Barcelona, the vehicle in which he ultimately made over 500 senior appearances and amassed a 21-trophy collection of prestigious honours. A departure to Monaco, mooted for the end of last season, fell through when he ruptured anterior cruciate ligaments last March, and the offer of rebuilding his fitness with old associates van Gaal and Hoek at the Aon Training Complex provided an irresistible option for the 32-year-old free agent, who duly agreed an 18-month contract.
Van Gaal was quick to stress that the newcomer had arrived as back-up to existing no.1 David De Gea, while also conceding that his pedigreed protégé was unlikely to settle for a spot on the bench. The fine balance of the situation replicated shades of Valdes’ international career, where he spent much of his time fighting to displace Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas. Despite the famed Real-Barça rivalry, however, Valdes’ conduct within the circumstances was astonishing.
Valdes vs Casillas
“Because he looks moody and intimidating, there was a lot written about Victor in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup saying he would be a bad guy to have in the squad, and it was utter nonsense,” recalls Hunter. “I watched every single training session and he helped raise the intensity of both Pepe Reina and Iker Casillas, who were both ahead of him in the pecking order. Gradually, Victor eased his way past Pepe to become number two, and in January 2013 when Iker was injured and Victor had to take his place for a must-win 2014 World Cup qualifier in Paris against France, he was absolutely brilliant.
“Iker was bowled over by what it was like to work with Victor. When Valdes played against France and was the hero, he phoned and texted Casillas to say: ‘I’m keeping your place warm; you’re the no.1.’ After the game when he was the hero he publicly said he was just doing the job in Iker’s absence. Having also had issues with Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid, it was a horrible time for Casillas, and for Valdes to replace him for Spain, keep the country in qualifying and dedicate his work to Iker was emblematic of how Victor has behaved during his senior career."
A leader - and a beast
“Even as a kid, he had something about him which worked within the collective," continues Hunter. "Barça broke all their own rules to take Andres Iniesta to La Masia as an 11-year-old, rather than 14, as they usually insisted, because they were scared they were going to lose him. The guy who looked after than him – despite being only two years older than him – was Victor. He decided to be his pal. He has that extra something that helps make a group, maintain a group and keep it competitive. He can lift people.
"Victor isn’t a noisy guy, but he’s a leader and he’s a ferocious beast of a competitor. I know and admire him, so I’m thrilled that he’s gone to a proper football club at a level at which he fully belongs. His psyche is far more in tune with the British sporting mentality than many Spaniards are, and these things come together to make an exceptional signing, especially for free, for Manchester United.”
For Louis van Gaal, the man Valdes describes as: “The most important person,” of his career, January's free transfer respresented more than just good business sense; it is the validation of faith in precocious young talent.
