Although still young, this was when football started to become more serious for the budding goalkeeper, but David says he found the transition to academy football to be seamless.
“I fitted in very easily to my new team,” he recalls. “At that age, you are all just kids, having a good time and playing football together. I always found it easy to go into a new dressing room, and enjoyed being part of a new team with new friends and making new relationships.”
As one of the star players in the side, he was often named captain too: “I enjoyed that leadership, and trying to be a role model for the team in terms of behaviour. That’s part of who I am anyway, and I like taking that responsibility. It’s never something that I’ve looked for actively, but if it comes to me, I’m happy with that.”
Working his way steadily through the age groups at Cornella, it was only a matter of time before the big clubs came knocking, and it was then-Premier League side Blackburn Rovers who took a punt on the teenage keeper.
“That was a massive change,” he says of the move to Lancashire from Catalonia. “But I didn’t have any doubts about it at all. Obviously I spoke to my mum and dad about it, and they were very open when we discussed it, and they wanted the best for me. They said it was a chance I couldn’t turn down, because it might only ever come once.
“They said to try it, and if it doesn’t work out I’ve always got a home to come back to. But at least you can say you’ve tried. I think it was harder for them than
it was for me.
“The good thing for me was I had one of my ex-team-mates, Hugo Fernandez, already at Blackburn, because he had signed the year before. Blackburn and Cornella had a relationship where they sent players on trial, or short-term deals. So every six months Blackburn would send scouts over to watch us, and then decide which players they would bring over.
“So I first went over in 2011, on trial for four days. There were about 10 of us, and I was one of the oldest. I was about to turn 16 that September, but in England the age groups run from September to August, so I would have counted as an under-15 if I was to join that season, which is too young to move to a club abroad.
“So I waited until the following season, and joined halfway through so I could learn the language, and adapt before starting with the under-18s. I spent six months training with the under-18s – this was when Blackburn were in the Premier League – and playing for the under-16s at weekends. Sometimes I would train with the first-team too if they needed a keeper so it was a great experience for me.
“I’d say the moment I realised I could play football for a career was when I signed for Blackburn’s academy.”
https://www.arsenal.com/news/rayas-road-southport-north-london
