The Spaniard, who is preparing to represent his country at the UEFA Nations League finals next week, enjoyed the rare privilege of playing for his boyhood club Athletic Bilbao at the start of his career. Unsurprisingly, it was they he saw first as a fan…

It was a friendly game at San Mames, Athletic Bilbao against Chievo Verona. I don’t remember the score, but I went there with my dad and a couple of friends that we were playing with in a little team in our village.

We were taken there to watch the game and it was incredible to go into the stadium, feel the atmosphere for the first time, watching a big game live with 40,000 people or whatever. It was beautiful.

My family are Athletic fans because we are from a little town in Basque and every person is supporting Athletic. Then, I was very lucky to be in the academy there since nine years old – from nine years to 23, and I played for the team my family supported.

When I was growing up I was looking at the Athletic goalkeepers, Daniel Aranzubia was playing in the first team, Inaki Lafuente, different goalkeepers, but I was always looking for a goalkeeper!