Real Sociedad’s Alex Remiro: ‘With United it feels like something always goes wrong’

The Real Sociedad and Spain goalkeeper on old teammates, new challenges and how Manchester United inspired him

Sometimes it’s the detail that stays with you. Alex Remiro can’t remember the brand, but he can still see the colour, the way they looked, how much he liked them. “When I was a kid, if you became a goalkeeper it was because you were an Iker Casillas fan, because you were the biggest, or because no one else wanted to do it,” he says. Or because one day in Cascante, Navarre, a friend turns up with a pair of gloves: brand new, grey and very, very cool. “I was like: ‘Hey, let me have a go.’ I went in goal and, well, I never left again.”

Now he is a European champion with Spain; a Copa del Rey winner with Real Sociedad, their first trophy in 34 years, albeit one won in an empty stadium and a year late, a sadness to the celebration they had to have without the fans and with a single family member each; and no one in La Liga has kept more clean sheets this season. And the way he tells it, that’s thanks in part to Manchester United, their opponents on Thursday, and the team who taught la Real a lesson. Literally, he says.