“I still have to pinch myself to see if it’s true or a dream.”
Amid all the ill will directed Trent Alexander-Arnold’s way by some corners of Liverpool’s online fanbase, it can be forgotten that his presentation as a Real Madrid player would be a day to savour forever.
Alexander-Arnold contained his giddiness during a composed appearance in front of the world’s assembled media, fielding a range of questions which stemmed from his grasp of the Spanish language to the inner workings of his Liverpool exit.
Timing of Liverpool Exit
After a refreshingly flawless opening speech in Spanish, Alexander-Arnold almost tripped himself up with his second sentence in English. The “very, very excited” defender described this as “a day that I have been waiting for a long time now.”
Before any conspiracy theorists twisted these words into an admission of guilt regarding his supposedly dwindling affection for Liverpool, Alexander-Arnold quickly clarified: “When I say I’ve been waiting a long time, I mean a couple of weeks, not years. I’m very excited to be here. There’s a lot of respect for Real Madrid, and I’ve always admired their players and their trophies. I grew up watching Real Madrid win. I wanted to be part of this history. They’re a team with the mentality to win titles.”
The boyhood Red added: “I knew that if I left Liverpool, it was only to go to Real Madrid. At some point I had to make a decision, and it was the right time.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have played for the biggest team in England, and now I’ll be doing so for the biggest team in Spain.” A diplomat would have been satisfied with that carefully balanced stance.
Jude Bellingham’s Role
Long before the confirmation of Alexander-Arnold’s Spanish sojourn, it was repeatedly claimed that Real Madrid’s English midfielder Jude Bellingham had used his powers of persuasion to lure his good friend to the Bernabéu.
Alexander-Arnold was quick to quash the mythos of ‘Agent Jude.’
“A lot of people think he played a huge part in me coming here, but to be honest the club speaks for itself,” the Englishman shrugged. “Yeah we spoke. It wasn’t exactly what people might think it was. We spoke a lot about Liverpool, we spoke a lot about Madrid—the kind of conversation you have as players and as friends.
“You want to know what it is like, of course. In the national team, he is the only player that knew what it was like to be at Real Madrid, so everyone was asking questions.”
‘Dream Come True’
Liverpool’s open-top bus parade to celebrate winning the 2005 Champions League final rode straight past Alexander-Arnold’s boyhood home. One of the sozzled figures leaning off the top of the barge was a certain Xabi Alonso, fresh from scoring the equalizing penalty in a dramatic comeback against AC Milan.
“I grew up a Liverpool fan and saw Xabi’s final, of course,“ Alexander-Arnold gushed when reflecting on the prospect of learning from the Spanish midfielder. “I’ve spoken with Xabi a bit and told him he was an idol and working with him is a dream come true.
“He is someone who probably impacted my game a lot growing up, seeing him pass a ball. I explained this to him as well. Watching him pass a ball—seeing it influenced me to go and train harder at that and have a great hunger to be able to do that and to set standards.”
New Teammates
Alexander-Arnold bumped into fellow summer recruit Dean Huijsen on vacation but will meet his new teammates officially on Friday.
One potentially awkward encounter could be with Dani Carvajal, the player Alexander-Arnold is expected to replace at right back. The veteran defender is working his way back from a serious knee injury but has no intentions of sailing off to MLS just yet. Alexander-Arnold did nothing but praise his new teammate.
“He’s a fantastic player,” the Englishman noted, “and I have nothing but respect for everything he’s achieved for club and country. That only comes with hard work and talent.”
When it comes to his forward-thinking colleagues—namely, Kylian Mbappé and Vinicius Junior—Alexander-Arnold grinned: “I’m delighted to be playing with them instead of against them.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Trent Alexander-Arnold’s Real Madrid Unveiling: Agent Jude, Liverpool Admission, ‘My Idol’.