The last few years for Real Sociedad goalkeeper Álex Remiro have been full of professional success. He was part of the side that won the club’s first trophy in 34 years, the 2020 Copa del Rey, and this season helped them reach the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in two decades. Not long before we speak, he made his debut for the Spanish national team.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing for Remiro. In the past, he has struggled with his mental health, and now uses his platform to advocate for better mental health support for young footballers. He’s also started his own local project for families in the Gipúzkoa province of the Basque country, with the help of the NGO Fútbol Más and football-focused charitable initiative, Common Goal.
Here, he tells Alexandra Jonson all about his mental health journey, and the different ways he gives back to his community.
When I had my first loan from Athletic to Levante. I was playing badly, I was very bad mentally. I stopped looking after myself, I stopped training and I went into a spiral where I blamed everyone but myself. At that moment my agent recommended me to start work with Mar Rovira, a psychologist. After a few years I realised how important and how good it had been for me to take that step and to talk openly about how important mental health is for an elite athlete.
Not at first. At the beginning I didn’t see the improvement. Then with the passing of the days, the sessions, the months, the seasons, you start to realise that you mature, that you don’t give so much importance to the problems but you really value things for what they are.
No, because I would probably have fallen by the wayside. I wouldn’t be as mature as I am now to face the day to day or the matches. I don’t think I would have been able to face them mentally, I wouldn’t have been prepared.
I think so, especially because our line of success and failure is very fine, anything you do can have big consequences. You have to know how to manage it. You have to be calm, look calm, focused, believe in yourself. It is often difficult to manage. I would recommend all goalkeepers to work on [their mental health] and talk about it, internalise it and do it.
When I talk to young goalkeepers they often tell me that they’re afraid when they concede a goal; it’s always like the goal is entirely their fault and the rest of the team have no responsibility. In the elite we know that goals are scored against all of us and we all score them together, but for kids it’s not like that. We should teach young players to look after their teammates, not to blame them.
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Yes. In the end we are all different and different things will work for different people. But as a team, how we face games, how we react after having conceded a goal or played a bad game, that all matters. I and other more experienced players at Real Sociedad try to talk to the younger players about how to handle that. We try to take the pressure off them so that they can make the most of the opportunity they have.
We’ve set up a project where we want to reach 50 clubs at youth level in Gipúzkoa, neighbourhood and village clubs. Some parents whose children play at these clubs, they’re very pressurising and demanding - they hardly enjoy their child’s match. They go there just to win and want their child to be better than everyone else.
What we do is run three training sessions for parents on positive parenting, on how to understand what their children are feeling. We have a team of psychologists involved, as well as universities who helped design the programme. The parents and families who have participated have very good feedback; they keep in touch with the psychologists. They want to go to other clubs to continue the training and help other parents.
I always wanted to give back, but I didn’t want to just give money and that’s it. I wanted to create something that represented me, where I could meet the people. I wanted to be part of it, to help the people here.
I think that years ago mental health was like a taboo subject. It seemed that going to a psychologist meant that you were crazy, and I think that has changed. For me, going to the psychologist is like going to the gym or like talking to my nutritionist or my goalkeeping coach. It’s just one more facet of my life. It wasn’t like that before.
I haven’t stopped to think about what it all means, but I’m enjoying it a lot. I feel very good on a day-to-day basis. I value everything as a whole. But I don’t just look at what I’ve achieved, even more I look at the process that has brought me here, that’s what makes me feel calm.
A lot. Football is really important to me, but so is my health, my family, time with my friends, being with my dogs, playing music. When I’m in football, it’s 100%, but I also try to switch off. I think that is important, in order to truly be happy.
The last few years for Real Sociedad goalkeeper Álex Remiro have been full of professional success. He was part of the side that won the club’s first trophy in 34 years, the 2020 Copa del Rey, and this season helped them reach the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in two decades. Not long before we speak, he made his debut for the Spanish national team.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing for Remiro. In the past, he has struggled with his mental health, and now uses his platform to advocate for better mental health support for young footballers. He’s also started his own local project for families in the Gipúzkoa province of the Basque country, with the help of the NGO Fútbol Más and football-focused charitable initiative, Common Goal.
Here, he tells Alexandra Jonson all about his mental health journey, and the different ways he gives back to his community.
When I had my first loan from Athletic to Levante. I was playing badly, I was very bad mentally. I stopped looking after myself, I stopped training and I went into a spiral where I blamed everyone but myself. At that moment my agent recommended me to start work with Mar Rovira, a psychologist. After a few years I realised how important and how good it had been for me to take that step and to talk openly about how important mental health is for an elite athlete.
Not at first. At the beginning I didn’t see the improvement. Then with the passing of the days, the sessions, the months, the seasons, you start to realise that you mature, that you don’t give so much importance to the problems but you really value things for what they are.
No, because I would probably have fallen by the wayside. I wouldn’t be as mature as I am now to face the day to day or the matches. I don’t think I would have been able to face them mentally, I wouldn’t have been prepared.
I think so, especially because our line of success and failure is very fine, anything you do can have big consequences. You have to know how to manage it. You have to be calm, look calm, focused, believe in yourself. It is often difficult to manage. I would recommend all goalkeepers to work on [their mental health] and talk about it, internalise it and do it.
When I talk to young goalkeepers they often tell me that they’re afraid when they concede a goal; it’s always like the goal is entirely their fault and the rest of the team have no responsibility. In the elite we know that goals are scored against all of us and we all score them together, but for kids it’s not like that. We should teach young players to look after their teammates, not to blame them.
Yes. In the end we are all different and different things will work for different people. But as a team, how we face games, how we react after having conceded a goal or played a bad game, that all matters. I and other more experienced players at Real Sociedad try to talk to the younger players about how to handle that. We try to take the pressure off them so that they can make the most of the opportunity they have.
We’ve set up a project where we want to reach 50 clubs at youth level in Gipúzkoa, neighbourhood and village clubs. Some parents whose children play at these clubs, they’re very pressurising and demanding - they hardly enjoy their child’s match. They go there just to win and want their child to be better than everyone else.
What we do is run three training sessions for parents on positive parenting, on how to understand what their children are feeling. We have a team of psychologists involved, as well as universities who helped design the programme. The parents and families who have participated have very good feedback; they keep in touch with the psychologists. They want to go to other clubs to continue the training and help other parents.
I always wanted to give back, but I didn’t want to just give money and that’s it. I wanted to create something that represented me, where I could meet the people. I wanted to be part of it, to help the people here.
I think that years ago mental health was like a taboo subject. It seemed that going to a psychologist meant that you were crazy, and I think that has changed. For me, going to the psychologist is like going to the gym or like talking to my nutritionist or my goalkeeping coach. It’s just one more facet of my life. It wasn’t like that before.
I haven’t stopped to think about what it all means, but I’m enjoying it a lot. I feel very good on a day-to-day basis. I value everything as a whole. But I don’t just look at what I’ve achieved, even more I look at the process that has brought me here, that’s what makes me feel calm.
A lot. Football is really important to me, but so is my health, my family, time with my friends, being with my dogs, playing music. When I’m in football, it’s 100%, but I also try to switch off. I think that is important, in order to truly be happy.
The last few years for Real Sociedad goalkeeper Álex Remiro have been full of professional success. He was part of the side that won the club’s first trophy in 34 years, the 2020 Copa del Rey, and this season helped them reach the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in two decades. Not long before we speak, he made his debut for the Spanish national team.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing for Remiro. In the past, he has struggled with his mental health, and now uses his platform to advocate for better mental health support for young footballers. He’s also started his own local project for families in the Gipúzkoa province of the Basque country, with the help of the NGO Fútbol Más and football-focused charitable initiative, Common Goal.
Here, he tells Alexandra Jonson all about his mental health journey, and the different ways he gives back to his community.
When I had my first loan from Athletic to Levante. I was playing badly, I was very bad mentally. I stopped looking after myself, I stopped training and I went into a spiral where I blamed everyone but myself. At that moment my agent recommended me to start work with Mar Rovira, a psychologist. After a few years I realised how important and how good it had been for me to take that step and to talk openly about how important mental health is for an elite athlete.
Not at first. At the beginning I didn’t see the improvement. Then with the passing of the days, the sessions, the months, the seasons, you start to realise that you mature, that you don’t give so much importance to the problems but you really value things for what they are.
No, because I would probably have fallen by the wayside. I wouldn’t be as mature as I am now to face the day to day or the matches. I don’t think I would have been able to face them mentally, I wouldn’t have been prepared.
I think so, especially because our line of success and failure is very fine, anything you do can have big consequences. You have to know how to manage it. You have to be calm, look calm, focused, believe in yourself. It is often difficult to manage. I would recommend all goalkeepers to work on [their mental health] and talk about it, internalise it and do it.
When I talk to young goalkeepers they often tell me that they’re afraid when they concede a goal; it’s always like the goal is entirely their fault and the rest of the team have no responsibility. In the elite we know that goals are scored against all of us and we all score them together, but for kids it’s not like that. We should teach young players to look after their teammates, not to blame them.
Yes. In the end we are all different and different things will work for different people. But as a team, how we face games, how we react after having conceded a goal or played a bad game, that all matters. I and other more experienced players at Real Sociedad try to talk to the younger players about how to handle that. We try to take the pressure off them so that they can make the most of the opportunity they have.
We’ve set up a project where we want to reach 50 clubs at youth level in Gipúzkoa, neighbourhood and village clubs. Some parents whose children play at these clubs, they’re very pressurising and demanding - they hardly enjoy their child’s match. They go there just to win and want their child to be better than everyone else.
What we do is run three training sessions for parents on positive parenting, on how to understand what their children are feeling. We have a team of psychologists involved, as well as universities who helped design the programme. The parents and families who have participated have very good feedback; they keep in touch with the psychologists. They want to go to other clubs to continue the training and help other parents.
I always wanted to give back, but I didn’t want to just give money and that’s it. I wanted to create something that represented me, where I could meet the people. I wanted to be part of it, to help the people here.
I think that years ago mental health was like a taboo subject. It seemed that going to a psychologist meant that you were crazy, and I think that has changed. For me, going to the psychologist is like going to the gym or like talking to my nutritionist or my goalkeeping coach. It’s just one more facet of my life. It wasn’t like that before.
I haven’t stopped to think about what it all means, but I’m enjoying it a lot. I feel very good on a day-to-day basis. I value everything as a whole. But I don’t just look at what I’ve achieved, even more I look at the process that has brought me here, that’s what makes me feel calm.
A lot. Football is really important to me, but so is my health, my family, time with my friends, being with my dogs, playing music. When I’m in football, it’s 100%, but I also try to switch off. I think that is important, in order to truly be happy.
The last few years for Real Sociedad goalkeeper Álex Remiro have been full of professional success. He was part of the side that won the club’s first trophy in 34 years, the 2020 Copa del Rey, and this season helped them reach the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in two decades. Not long before we speak, he made his debut for the Spanish national team.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing for Remiro. In the past, he has struggled with his mental health, and now uses his platform to advocate for better mental health support for young footballers. He’s also started his own local project for families in the Gipúzkoa province of the Basque country, with the help of the NGO Fútbol Más and football-focused charitable initiative, Common Goal.
Here, he tells Alexandra Jonson all about his mental health journey, and the different ways he gives back to his community.
When I had my first loan from Athletic to Levante. I was playing badly, I was very bad mentally. I stopped looking after myself, I stopped training and I went into a spiral where I blamed everyone but myself. At that moment my agent recommended me to start work with Mar Rovira, a psychologist. After a few years I realised how important and how good it had been for me to take that step and to talk openly about how important mental health is for an elite athlete.
Not at first. At the beginning I didn’t see the improvement. Then with the passing of the days, the sessions, the months, the seasons, you start to realise that you mature, that you don’t give so much importance to the problems but you really value things for what they are.
No, because I would probably have fallen by the wayside. I wouldn’t be as mature as I am now to face the day to day or the matches. I don’t think I would have been able to face them mentally, I wouldn’t have been prepared.
I think so, especially because our line of success and failure is very fine, anything you do can have big consequences. You have to know how to manage it. You have to be calm, look calm, focused, believe in yourself. It is often difficult to manage. I would recommend all goalkeepers to work on [their mental health] and talk about it, internalise it and do it.
When I talk to young goalkeepers they often tell me that they’re afraid when they concede a goal; it’s always like the goal is entirely their fault and the rest of the team have no responsibility. In the elite we know that goals are scored against all of us and we all score them together, but for kids it’s not like that. We should teach young players to look after their teammates, not to blame them.
Yes. In the end we are all different and different things will work for different people. But as a team, how we face games, how we react after having conceded a goal or played a bad game, that all matters. I and other more experienced players at Real Sociedad try to talk to the younger players about how to handle that. We try to take the pressure off them so that they can make the most of the opportunity they have.
We’ve set up a project where we want to reach 50 clubs at youth level in Gipúzkoa, neighbourhood and village clubs. Some parents whose children play at these clubs, they’re very pressurising and demanding - they hardly enjoy their child’s match. They go there just to win and want their child to be better than everyone else.
What we do is run three training sessions for parents on positive parenting, on how to understand what their children are feeling. We have a team of psychologists involved, as well as universities who helped design the programme. The parents and families who have participated have very good feedback; they keep in touch with the psychologists. They want to go to other clubs to continue the training and help other parents.
I always wanted to give back, but I didn’t want to just give money and that’s it. I wanted to create something that represented me, where I could meet the people. I wanted to be part of it, to help the people here.
I think that years ago mental health was like a taboo subject. It seemed that going to a psychologist meant that you were crazy, and I think that has changed. For me, going to the psychologist is like going to the gym or like talking to my nutritionist or my goalkeeping coach. It’s just one more facet of my life. It wasn’t like that before.
I haven’t stopped to think about what it all means, but I’m enjoying it a lot. I feel very good on a day-to-day basis. I value everything as a whole. But I don’t just look at what I’ve achieved, even more I look at the process that has brought me here, that’s what makes me feel calm.
A lot. Football is really important to me, but so is my health, my family, time with my friends, being with my dogs, playing music. When I’m in football, it’s 100%, but I also try to switch off. I think that is important, in order to truly be happy.
The last few years for Real Sociedad goalkeeper Álex Remiro have been full of professional success. He was part of the side that won the club’s first trophy in 34 years, the 2020 Copa del Rey, and this season helped them reach the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in two decades. Not long before we speak, he made his debut for the Spanish national team.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing for Remiro. In the past, he has struggled with his mental health, and now uses his platform to advocate for better mental health support for young footballers. He’s also started his own local project for families in the Gipúzkoa province of the Basque country, with the help of the NGO Fútbol Más and football-focused charitable initiative, Common Goal.
Here, he tells Alexandra Jonson all about his mental health journey, and the different ways he gives back to his community.
When I had my first loan from Athletic to Levante. I was playing badly, I was very bad mentally. I stopped looking after myself, I stopped training and I went into a spiral where I blamed everyone but myself. At that moment my agent recommended me to start work with Mar Rovira, a psychologist. After a few years I realised how important and how good it had been for me to take that step and to talk openly about how important mental health is for an elite athlete.
Not at first. At the beginning I didn’t see the improvement. Then with the passing of the days, the sessions, the months, the seasons, you start to realise that you mature, that you don’t give so much importance to the problems but you really value things for what they are.
No, because I would probably have fallen by the wayside. I wouldn’t be as mature as I am now to face the day to day or the matches. I don’t think I would have been able to face them mentally, I wouldn’t have been prepared.
I think so, especially because our line of success and failure is very fine, anything you do can have big consequences. You have to know how to manage it. You have to be calm, look calm, focused, believe in yourself. It is often difficult to manage. I would recommend all goalkeepers to work on [their mental health] and talk about it, internalise it and do it.
When I talk to young goalkeepers they often tell me that they’re afraid when they concede a goal; it’s always like the goal is entirely their fault and the rest of the team have no responsibility. In the elite we know that goals are scored against all of us and we all score them together, but for kids it’s not like that. We should teach young players to look after their teammates, not to blame them.
Yes. In the end we are all different and different things will work for different people. But as a team, how we face games, how we react after having conceded a goal or played a bad game, that all matters. I and other more experienced players at Real Sociedad try to talk to the younger players about how to handle that. We try to take the pressure off them so that they can make the most of the opportunity they have.
We’ve set up a project where we want to reach 50 clubs at youth level in Gipúzkoa, neighbourhood and village clubs. Some parents whose children play at these clubs, they’re very pressurising and demanding - they hardly enjoy their child’s match. They go there just to win and want their child to be better than everyone else.
What we do is run three training sessions for parents on positive parenting, on how to understand what their children are feeling. We have a team of psychologists involved, as well as universities who helped design the programme. The parents and families who have participated have very good feedback; they keep in touch with the psychologists. They want to go to other clubs to continue the training and help other parents.
I always wanted to give back, but I didn’t want to just give money and that’s it. I wanted to create something that represented me, where I could meet the people. I wanted to be part of it, to help the people here.
I think that years ago mental health was like a taboo subject. It seemed that going to a psychologist meant that you were crazy, and I think that has changed. For me, going to the psychologist is like going to the gym or like talking to my nutritionist or my goalkeeping coach. It’s just one more facet of my life. It wasn’t like that before.
I haven’t stopped to think about what it all means, but I’m enjoying it a lot. I feel very good on a day-to-day basis. I value everything as a whole. But I don’t just look at what I’ve achieved, even more I look at the process that has brought me here, that’s what makes me feel calm.
A lot. Football is really important to me, but so is my health, my family, time with my friends, being with my dogs, playing music. When I’m in football, it’s 100%, but I also try to switch off. I think that is important, in order to truly be happy.
The last few years for Real Sociedad goalkeeper Álex Remiro have been full of professional success. He was part of the side that won the club’s first trophy in 34 years, the 2020 Copa del Rey, and this season helped them reach the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in two decades. Not long before we speak, he made his debut for the Spanish national team.
It hasn’t all been plain sailing for Remiro. In the past, he has struggled with his mental health, and now uses his platform to advocate for better mental health support for young footballers. He’s also started his own local project for families in the Gipúzkoa province of the Basque country, with the help of the NGO Fútbol Más and football-focused charitable initiative, Common Goal.
Here, he tells Alexandra Jonson all about his mental health journey, and the different ways he gives back to his community.
When I had my first loan from Athletic to Levante. I was playing badly, I was very bad mentally. I stopped looking after myself, I stopped training and I went into a spiral where I blamed everyone but myself. At that moment my agent recommended me to start work with Mar Rovira, a psychologist. After a few years I realised how important and how good it had been for me to take that step and to talk openly about how important mental health is for an elite athlete.
Not at first. At the beginning I didn’t see the improvement. Then with the passing of the days, the sessions, the months, the seasons, you start to realise that you mature, that you don’t give so much importance to the problems but you really value things for what they are.
No, because I would probably have fallen by the wayside. I wouldn’t be as mature as I am now to face the day to day or the matches. I don’t think I would have been able to face them mentally, I wouldn’t have been prepared.
I think so, especially because our line of success and failure is very fine, anything you do can have big consequences. You have to know how to manage it. You have to be calm, look calm, focused, believe in yourself. It is often difficult to manage. I would recommend all goalkeepers to work on [their mental health] and talk about it, internalise it and do it.
When I talk to young goalkeepers they often tell me that they’re afraid when they concede a goal; it’s always like the goal is entirely their fault and the rest of the team have no responsibility. In the elite we know that goals are scored against all of us and we all score them together, but for kids it’s not like that. We should teach young players to look after their teammates, not to blame them.
Yes. In the end we are all different and different things will work for different people. But as a team, how we face games, how we react after having conceded a goal or played a bad game, that all matters. I and other more experienced players at Real Sociedad try to talk to the younger players about how to handle that. We try to take the pressure off them so that they can make the most of the opportunity they have.
We’ve set up a project where we want to reach 50 clubs at youth level in Gipúzkoa, neighbourhood and village clubs. Some parents whose children play at these clubs, they’re very pressurising and demanding - they hardly enjoy their child’s match. They go there just to win and want their child to be better than everyone else.
What we do is run three training sessions for parents on positive parenting, on how to understand what their children are feeling. We have a team of psychologists involved, as well as universities who helped design the programme. The parents and families who have participated have very good feedback; they keep in touch with the psychologists. They want to go to other clubs to continue the training and help other parents.
I always wanted to give back, but I didn’t want to just give money and that’s it. I wanted to create something that represented me, where I could meet the people. I wanted to be part of it, to help the people here.
I think that years ago mental health was like a taboo subject. It seemed that going to a psychologist meant that you were crazy, and I think that has changed. For me, going to the psychologist is like going to the gym or like talking to my nutritionist or my goalkeeping coach. It’s just one more facet of my life. It wasn’t like that before.
I haven’t stopped to think about what it all means, but I’m enjoying it a lot. I feel very good on a day-to-day basis. I value everything as a whole. But I don’t just look at what I’ve achieved, even more I look at the process that has brought me here, that’s what makes me feel calm.
A lot. Football is really important to me, but so is my health, my family, time with my friends, being with my dogs, playing music. When I’m in football, it’s 100%, but I also try to switch off. I think that is important, in order to truly be happy.
