Leaving Andalucia: Jesus Navas and the gamble of the summer

When the summer transfer window rolls around every year, football fans around the world spend countless hours discussing the best and the worst, the safest and the riskiest transfers of the season. This year is no different. For two weeks straight, the conversations on radio shows, tv shows and internet message boards have been relentlessly obsessing over the latest big name signings and what it means for the parties involved; will Falcao be worth his huge transfer fee at Monaco? Will André Schürrle find a natural position at Chelsea? Is £30M a justified price for Fernandinho, given that he’s 28 years old, plays in the Ukrainian league and only has 5 caps for Brazil?

These are all legitimate questions. Fans are always concerned about the inherent risk that a transfer carries for both the clubs and the players involved, and even though we haven’t even reached the official opening of this summer’s transfer window on 1^st July, we have already seen a great deal of high risk transfers. And while more has been said of Monaco’s spending splurge and Fernandinho’s arrival in Eastlands, it is the transfer of another new Manchester City player that is undoubtedly the riskiest of all of them; a transfer that has slightly gone under the radar considering its significance and the risk involved. I’m talking of course about Man City’s purchase of Sevilla’s Jesus Navas.

The risk is not because Navas is a bad player. On the contrary, Man City’s squad will be greatly enriched by the presence of the Spanish winger. As a natural right sided player, he should be able to bring a directness and width to the Citizens attack that has been lacking in recent times. Nor is it because of his £14.9M transfer fee, which is actually very reasonable considering the calibre of player that Navas is and quite a bit less than I would have considered him to be worth on talent alone.

What makes Navas’ transfer the riskiest of this summer is not a concern about Jesus Navas the football player, but Jesus Navas the man. Sometimes it is easy to forget that football players are not just the avatars we play with on FIFA and Football Manager. They are real people and, like you or me, they can and do have very real problems. They are not immune from the difficulties of the world by reason of their fame and skill. Believe it or not, these men, whom we raise to the point of near god-like reverence at times, are flawed.

Jesus Navas has always been very open about his flaw; he suffers from home sickness, something that has been with him for his entire life. While you may question the legitimacy of a grown man suffering from home sickness, a condition ordinarily associated with children in summer camps and boarding schools, let me assure you that Navas’ problem is very real and very serious.

At 27 years old, Navas is widely regarded as one of the best dribbling wingers in world football and has been for some time. However, the Spaniard has always been held back by his inability to leave his home town. Born and raised in Seville, the capital of Spain’s Andalucia province, Navas has spent his entire life in the beautiful Spanish city, and until last week had played his entire career for his local club despite regular interest from more accomplished teams in European football.

The effect of his home sickness is sometimes so severe that he suffers from crippling anxiety and panic attacks that have often threatened to jeopardise his professional career. A number of years ago, the Sevilla winger suffered a bout of homesickness whilst in a training camp with the Sevilla squad in Huelva province in Spain. The attack was so severe that his father and brother had to drive out to collect him and take him home to Seville.

Whilst that alone may not be enough to strike you as unusual enough to warrant mentioning, consider this; Huelva province is only 57 miles away from Seville. It is in the same region as Seville and the trip there takes exactly one hour. In English terms, that is like being home sick for Coventry when you are in Nottingham.

That is merely one of many examples of the effect home sickness has had on Navas’ career. When he was first selected for the Spanish national under-21 team nearly a decade ago, he lasted only a few days at the training camp before a severe bout of homesickness hit him and he cut his stay short, returning to Seville.

Then when the youngster received his first call-up to the full national team, a huge honour to any professional footballer, Navas was so panicked and depressed by the prospect that he immediately announced his retirement from international football; before he’d even earned his first cap.

Navas’ progression as a footballer was also suffering on the domestic stage because of his condition. In 2006 Chelsea, who were on the cusp of becoming a major player in European football behind Roman Abramovich’s vast fortune, came calling for the young Spaniard’s services. A deal had been agreed between the Blues and Sevilla, and the move was all but finalised. However, the London club’s attempt to lure him to England ultimately failed, as Navas himself rejected Chelsea’s offer. His condition was so serious that he couldn’t contemplate leaving home. It held him captive in a city and at a club in which he had already progressed as far as he was ever going to.

In light of the obviously negative effect that home-sickness has had on Navas’ career, the Spaniard has been determined to put his struggles behind him. In August 2009, he announced his desire to overcome his condition in order to stake his claim in the Spanish national squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. In a slightly surprising but welcome move, he made himself available for selection, stating that “To play for your country is the greatest thing and I hope to be able to, too. I have to be calm and make my decision. I have to continue taking the right steps.“

The statement must have been music to the ears of Spanish football fans, who had long admired the right winger in their domestic La Liga but had been denied the chance to see him in the famous red and blue strip of the national team.

After making himself available, Navas was promptly selected for the squad by Spain coach Vicente del Bosque, who dismissed claims that Navas’ condition made him a risky selection. With the faith of his coach behind him, Navas went on to prove himself admirably in South Africa, spending 6 weeks with the national squad and contributing from the bench in what would be a World Cup-winning campaign.

Following that success, which was without question the biggest step to combat the condition that he had made to-date, Navas went on to compete in Poland and Austria for Euro 2012, where he once again was a part of a championship-winning Spain side. Right now, Navas is in Brazil for the Confederations Cup, showing once again his comfort in travelling with the Spanish national squad and seemingly putting to rest the doubts about his ability to leave home.

With his fear of international football well and truly conquered, Navas believes that now is the time for him to take that next step to advance his domestic career; to leave his home town of Seville behind and set up new residence in England as part of Manuel Pellegrini’s Manchester City squad, 7 years after rejecting Chelsea.

If he is ready, Navas can become a sensation in the EPL. Manchester City fans should be relishing the prospect of seeing him grace the right flank of Eastlands, combining the blistering pace and direct dribbling that made him such a star for Sevilla. He is a fantastic, exciting football player who has long deserved his chance to shine on the biggest stage and craft a new legacy for himself as part of one of the biggest football clubs in the world.

Any optimism of what could be, however, is tempered by a lingering doubt that doesn’t quite seem to go away no matter how hard you shake your head.

What if he isn’t truly over his home sickness?

Guillem Balague, a Sky Sports columnists and one of the most respected La Liga journalists around, tweeted recently that Navas’ homes sickness was a thing of the past. But even he admits that “not everybody adapts abroad”:

This is a whole different ball game to spending six weeks in South Africa with 22 other Spanish players who speak the same language and enjoy the very same home comforts that Navas does. This isn’t a training camp surrounded by Spanish-speaking friends after which he has the mental assurance that he will be returning to his beloved Seville. This is a full time relocation, 1120 miles away, to an entirely different country.

I’ve been lucky enough to have travelled to Seville, and I have spent time living in Manchester, so I know both cities. I feel confident telling you that there won’t be a whole lot of home comforts for the Spaniard in the drizzly North West of England. Manchester is a cold, grey city with rain that seemingly never stops from September to June. The people are very English, with thick accents and a penchant for lager and fish and chips.

Seville, on the other hand, is a beautiful city full of beautiful people. The colours of the spectacular buildings shimmer off the always shining sun, and the smell of spices and paella fill the air. The city is teeming with beautiful churches and bridges stretching out over a clear blue river. The canal in Manchester, by comparison, is a sickly brown.

Given the drastic contrast of the two cities, it will be a tremendous struggle for Navas to adapt to his new home. Fitting in to a new environment, all while trying to perform for his new team, will take a great deal of mental strength.

Leading sports psychologist Daniel Abrahams agrees that Navas’ past means he still represents something of a risk to City, despite the confidence that he has successful beaten his condition. In an interview with Goal he said:

“… it is a risk if someone has had these problems. It is a risk for Manchester City…Common triggers [for psychological issues] for footballers are poor performances or team-mates he doesn’t get on with. If he starts off poorly, he will have to show a lot of mental strength…If he doesn’t perform well they could replace him or he’ll stay on the bench. Any of that kind of stress can trigger anxiety, mild depression or even severe depression.”

It will not be easy for Navas to prevent the demons of his past from resurfacing. Playing for Manchester City carries with it enough pressure on its own. The constant expectation of excellence is a heavy weight for a player to bear, especially for a player like Navas who comes from a club that worshipped him as a legend.

He will have to win over the crowd and his teammates, and he will have to do this all while combating his own anxiety issues living in a new country for the first time in his entire life. He has to adapt to a completely new culture both on and off the field, and they will both be as challenging, stressful and demanding as each other. The pressure is really on Navas to make this work because if the move doesn’t work out, the huge step forward Navas took in his career by moving to City will be followed by an even greater step back.

At this point nobody, not even Navas himself, knows whether he will be able to take on this challenge successfully. If he can overcome his fears, though, and adapt to life both as a citizen and a Citizen of Manchester, Jesus Navas will be the success story of the 2013/14 season.

For his sake, and for Manchester City’s, let’s hope he will be just that.

Navas homesickness,thing of the past!! But not evrybdy adapts abroad.He’ll B looked after by Latin players.His 1st season will b super ull c

— Guillem Balague (@GuillemBalague) June 4, 2013