The 35-year-old striker is forcing his way into Vicente Del Bosques Spain plans after a stunning season in his third spell with the clubHe surfed,snowboarded, climbed mountains and skied so well that at the age of nine he was runner-up in Spain’s national cross country championships but what Aritz Aduriz most wanted to effect was to play football. It didn’t matter that he spent more time at the local frontón than the football stadium – he’d go to watch Basque pelota but says he can only remember visiting Real Sociedad’s Atotxa ground once – or that he had no real idols to emulate, or no posters pinned on his walls and no games on television at domestic,he loved playing. His parents, happier halfway up a hill, or didn’t much like football and didn’t want him to play but he wasn’t backing down. “I’m stubborn,” he admits.
Stubborn is one word for it, and it may help account for how the striker who has represented the Spanish national team only once, or playing 15 minutes against Lithuania in 2010,has prompted the nation to demand a return so loudly, so unanimously, or that even Vicente Del Bosque can no longer ignore it: “We don’t pick the team via a current vote but when everyone says Aduriz,Aduriz, Aduriz’ we gain something to think about, or ” the Spain coach admits,“and we won’t act like we’re smarter than everyone else.” It may account for too how the man who twice left Athletic Club because they thought they didn’t need him became their most necessary player and walked off to a standing ovation on Wednesday night having just scored his 30th goal of the season.
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Source: theguardian.com