Jordi Amat interview: Swansea defender hails father figure Mauricio Pochettino

The Spaniard tells Jack Pitt-Brooke he puts much of his successes down to the man now in charge of Tottenham

Jordi Amat pictured outside the Liberty Stadium

Before Dele Alli and Eric Dier there was Luke Shaw and Calum Chambers, but before any of them there was Jordi Amat. There is a long list of footballers who were given their chance by Mauricio Pochettino and it all began at Espanyol over six years ago.

Amat was an eager 17-year-old centre-back who was given trust and confidence by the rookie manager, along with a whole generation of cantera graduates. Amat is now 24 years old and is an accomplished ball-playing centre-back. He has left Spain behind, and is completing his third season at Swansea City. He has represented Catalonia and captained Spain at under-21 level. And he puts much of his successes down to the man now in charge of Tottenham Hotspur.

Jordi Amat is from Canet de Mar, a small tourist town half an hour up the coast from Barcelona. His father and grandfather, both called Jordi, are both Espanyol fans too. When this Jordi was eight years old he was good enough to sign for the academy of the only team he wanted to play for, the team still close to his hear.

In January 2009, when Amat was still 16, and playing for the youth team, Espanyol were in the relegation zone and looking for a saviour. The club turned to its legendary 36-year-old centre-back Pochettino to take over and keep them up, which is what he did.

The next January 17 year old Amat was given his chance, on as a substitute against Real Mallorca. By the end of the season he was a regular, the foundation of this youthful team from centre-back, grateful to his manager for letting him show that he was ready.

Jordi Amat applauds the away support after Swansea's win over Arsenal (Getty)

“Pochettino was like my father,” Amat tells The Independent, looking back as a grown man. “It was a special relationship. He took care of me. He talked with me a lot, he said you have to do this, and that. He said that he was like me, 20 years before, when he was 17 playing his first game for Marcelo Bielsa. It was like a copy, in different years. It was so good to be part of that team in that time, a good feeling.”

Amat was not the only one. Over the course of his four years at Espanyol, Pochettino gave debuts to almost a whole team, including those such as Javi Lopez, Didac Vila, David Lopez, Victor Ruiz and Alvaro Vazquez, still close friends with Amat, who have gone onto successful careers.

“He gave us a lot of confidence, I was so proud and happy to start so young” Amat remembers. “And when you see a manager was a player recently as well, he can try to explain things to you in a better way, to do this or that.” Pochettino, forever a workaholic, gave Amat solo double sessions on precise defending and heading skills. “He was so important in that moment for the young lads like me, Vazquez and Victor Ruiz, he gave us that opportunity.”

The next season Amat flourished, a La Liga regular at 18 in a team that finished an impressive eighth. What is striking about his memories of playing for a Pochettino is how the young manager seemed to arrive at Espanyol fully-formed. “The idea was very clear, from the first moment,” Amat remembers, “how to play, how to press high. His philosophy is a mix of hard work and also quality on the ball. And he is doing the same at Tottenham now.”

That same high-intensity football was fuelled by the same gruelling pre-seasons. Pochettino and assistant Jesus Perez took the Espanyol squad to Perelada, a small village near the foothills of the Pyrenees, where the players ran laps around a hilly golf course. “For a week it was just running, twice every morning, up the hills,” Amat remembers. “Then in the afternoon it was football. One week, then rest for two days, then another week. It was so hard, but it was a benefit. You feel strong, fit, faster. It is the right way.”

Jordi Amat challenges Wayne Rooney for the ball (Getty)

Amat’s impressive performances that season for Espanyol led to further recognition at international level. He is part of an excellent generation of Spanish players, born in 1992, along with Isco, Koke, Iker Muniain, Alvaro Morata and Oriol Romeu. They first played together at under-16 level and before his Espanyol debut Amat had represented his country at the 2009 Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria.

After his excellent 2010-11 season he went to the Under-20 World Cup in Colombia, at which Spain were the strongest team. But when they drew 2-2 with Brazil in the quarter-finals, they were defeated on penalties, Amat missing a crucial kick. “Afterwards I spoke to Philippe Coutinho, who is a friend of mine from Espanyol,” Amat recalls. “He said that we played better than them, that they were lucky to win on penalties. It was a pity but that is football.”

From there Amat stepped up into the Spain under-21s, where he played under Julen Lopetegui, who surprisingly left him out of the squad that won the 2013 European Championship in Israel. Amat eventually became captain of the side, although he was injured for the play-off Spain lost, costing them a place at the 2015 tournament. Many of his old team-mates – Isco, Koke, Morata – have stepped up into Vicente del Bosque’s senior side and Amat still dreams of doing the same.

Amat is Catalan, though, and his international career has not just been for Spain. Twice he has represented Catalonia in their annual exhibition friendly, first against Tunisia in 2011, then against Nigeria in 2013.

“It is a special day,” Amat smiles. “You play with players like Xavi, Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets, which is nice. But you also play for your country, which is a special feeling. We know that Catalonia is not an [official] country, but we are something different. So everyone in the team feels good to be part of that.”

When Amat played for Catalonia the team was coached by Johan Cruyff, who gave so much to football in the area as player then manager of Barcelona. This meant that Catalonia always played out from the back, the style Amat loves.

“This is my style, I grew up like this,” he says. “I have played like this every year, playing good football from the back up to the strikers, taking care of the ball. It is important, because it is the future of football, Barcelona and Bayern play like this.”

All of which explains why Amat was so pleased when Michael Laudrup called him in 2013 and asked if he wanted to sign for Swansea. He had always enjoyed watching the Premier League, and when his friend Oriol Romeu signed for Chelsea in 2011, Amat wanted to follow.

“Laudrup said to me that Swansea take care of the ball, they like to play, and it would be perfect to me. I said of course I would come.”

Amat immediately fell in love with his new club – “a family club, like Espanyol” – and his family soon moved to Swansea too. He settled into English football, and enjoys the fact that it is more intense and more physical than La Liga. “From the first moment I have felt good in this league,” he explains. “It is the best league in the world, so competitive, every team is so strong. In Spain it is more possession, more relaxed with the ball. Here you work more, you see some games are going up, going back, going up, going back. And in Spain, referees whistle for more fouls, but here it is more play on and keep going. It’s good for the league.”


 Amat has described Swansea as a 'family club, like Espanyol'

When Laudrup was replaced by Garry Monk, though, Amat’s chances decreased and he was unfortunate with the timing of two injuries, knee ligament and then broken metatarsal, last season. He now finds himself behind the established pair of Ashley Williams and Federico Fernandez, and first-team opportunities this season have been limited.

It has been a frustrating time for Amat but his commitment to this town and this club remain strong. “To play football this is the best city,” he says. “It is a lovely area, and a second home to my family.”

Earlier this year he signed a new deal at Swansea after chairman Huw Jenkins turned down moves from Espanyol, Rayo Vallecano and Granada to take him back to Spain on loan. “You try to be fit and to train well, and be ready to help the team,” Amat says. “Sometimes it is hard and you have to wait. But you never know what is going to happen in the future.”

My Other Life

I have a hobby which is playing Call of Duty, and I think I am a great player. It is good to disconnect for a couple of hours. Some of my team-mates play Black Ops 3, Angel Rangel and Kyle Bartley, but I am the best one. Five years ago, playing Modern Warfare 2, I was eighth in the world. Just for a month, me and my brother said we had to get into the top 10. So I would play for four hours, then he would play for four hours, so we were doing a serious job. Then we got to eighth in the table. Our average was better than first place, but the leader was playing for 24 hours a day, and we couldn’t do that.