Mata reveals how he spent the international break
Hi everyone. To make the most of the international break last Saturday I was in Asturias, my home region.
It was a truly wonderful day and receiving the prize that carries the name of Enrique Castro ‘Quini’ is always special and makes sure that the legacy of ‘Brujo’ lives on. A legend, regardless of what team you support, and we keep on learning from him.
"The most difficult thing isn’t to arrive at the top, but to keep yourself there and he [Rafa Nadal] is the perfect example of that."
We are all looking forward to training together on Thursday to prepare for Saturday’s game against Leicester.
Over the last few days we have seen how the English national team, with various of my team-mates involved, have continued to move positively towards qualification, as have Spain.
Another player who continues to show his spectacular form is Daniel James, who scored in a friendly against Belarus after picking up a few goals at the start of the campaign.
Hopefully on Saturday he will continue that run.
Moving away from football and instead talking tennis, last weekend we saw another historic moment courtesy of Rafa Nadal and Daniil Medvedev.
It was a final that will be remembered for a long time, and once again showed the physical and mental strength that Rafa Nadal has which I’ve always admired.
On and off the court he is a role model and has continued to play at an extraordinarily high level for many years.
The most difficult thing isn’t to arrive at the top, but to keep yourself there and he is the perfect example of that.
I’ll leave it there for today. Thank you as always for your support, and I hope you all have a good week.
Hugs,
Juan