Diego Godin – ‘A league with Atletico Madrid is worth ten with Real Madrid’ | OneFootball

Atletico Madrid icon Diego Godin has remembered his goal at Camp Nou, nine years on from taking Los Colchoneros to the title. ‘I can’t explain it to you’, Godin told Diario AS, when asked how it felt to win the league at the home of Barcelona.

The Uruguayan central defender already had hero status in the Rojiblanco half of Madrid, before he wrote his name in the history books. Atleti’s 1-1 draw sealed the La Liga title, in one of the greatest victories Spain has seen, against two of the best teams in history at the time.

Godin feels that Atletico value their title far more than their rivals though.

“I can’t explain it to you, it feels like: a league with Atleti is worth like ten at Barca, Madrid or Bayern. Because of how you celebrate it, because of how difficult it is, because of how hard it is for the Atleti people to win a title and the way that league was won. When you win and, on top of that, the fans feel represented by the players on the field, it’s more special.”

He also admitted that manager Diego Simeone would have had him nowhere near the goal if it were up to him.

“Cholo didn’t like very much if I went to play as centre forward, up front, when you had to win a game and push at the Calderon… He always told me: ‘No, Diego. If you can’t win, stay behind, you don’t have to lose it’. And it happened more than once that I went up, and, with a header of mine, we ended up winning or drawing. I remember one, against Sporting, last minute, I grazed it and…”

Which only motivated Godin to get one over on his manager.

“I went straight to Cholo: ‘You see, b******, you saw that I had to go. Suck it, [this is] for you…”. And he laughed. He was happier than all of us (laughs). But he didn’t like me leaving my defensive area, no.”

Godin is currently playing in Argentina with Velez Sarsfield at the age of 37, having recently retired from Uruguay duty. While Godin feels like something of a past generation, the likes of Koke, Angel Correa, Jose Maria Gimenez and Antoine Griezmann were all present when he left, with Gimenez inheriting his number.