“Kepa Arrizabalaga on Adapting to Life and Football at Chelsea: A Goalkeeper’s Perspective”

With new Chelsea players still joining life at the club, if you want to look for an example of someone constantly used to a new environment in a different city in an unfamiliar country, Kepa Arrizabalaga is a good starting point.

The 28-year-old goalkeeper has not only had his ups and downs when it comes to earning a place in Chelsea’s starting line-up, but less publicly has had to adjust to life in general in a mixed environment since moving from Spain. La Liga to play in the Premier League.

It’s a progression that Kepa discussed in an interview, and you can see how being a goalkeeper can have an impact on how you deal with challenges.

He is considering a return to his Chelsea transfer from his childhood club, Athletic Bilbao, in 2018.

This is my fifth year here, Kiba begins. He came from another great club, Athletic, but the change of country, city, league, that was the big change.

I come from many years in Athletic where I had my close family and close friends. So when you change countries, like anyone who moves to a different country, you need time to adjust, time to get yourself in order, and time to create habits. And sometimes it takes time.

He acknowledges that soccer can also have an effect on adaptation, especially when you are in a success-oriented atmosphere.

“There is pressure and a lot is expected of you,” he says. “The intensity of the matches here in England is much higher than in Spain, both the matches and the number of matches you play. So you have to adapt step by step. You need to learn little by little from people who have been in the club for a long time and who have been in a similar situation.

“You need to trust them and create your habits so that you feel like me now, more comfortable and used to everything.”

Making the move from Bilbao and Athletic to London and Chelsea, Kepa has moved from a city that occupies a small part of his current home and where one club dominates the local football scene to a league full of capital derbies. It was a big change.

“Especially because I knew Athletic from a very young age,” he points out. “I came up through the ranks from the age of nine to 23. I knew everyone, I knew the fans, the pitch, everything, and when I moved to London, that wasn’t the case.

«Well, you know the team from the outside but not from the inside. you don’t know the size [of the club], you don’t know how things work, and everything takes time. What I have to say is that I found myself in a club where they helped me with everything. I met my teammates and there were a lot of Spanish players when I arrived. We were five or six.

All this helps you a little more and makes you feel at home. They helped me a lot, and that was very important to me at the beginning.

There were Azpi, Cesc, Pedro, Alvaro Morata and Marcos Alonso. We’re enough.

So the fact that goalkeepers in general can be seen as outsiders in football, an important part of the team but living differently in games and training, does it mean that they are resilient when faced with a challenge as a change?

“What I’m saying is that many times the goalkeepers fight or enjoy the games alone,” says Kepa. This is also true when you move to a new city.

You live the happy moments a little isolated and the same happens with the not so good experiences. Then there’s the type of person I am: I’m completely introverted. I don’t really show my feelings. Keep it in for better or worse.

This is who I am now. In some ways, it can make you exaggerate more and make things bigger, but there is also a learning curve. You need to look inside yourself and know when to sometimes allow yourself to be supportive and show your feelings a little more.

Continuing the theme of individuals in team sports, Kepa reveals some of his other athletic passions and how they compare.

I love Formula 1 and MotoGP. I really like motorcycles. I closely watch how they handle high-pressure situations. The goalkeeper plays as a team but there are many times when you are alone and you need mental strength to overcome certain moments and situations.

So I would love to see how Formula 1 teams operate, the strategies they use, how they come across a breakdown, a mechanical failure and how they plan the next few laps if they record better or worse lap times.

In the end, they are people whose hearts race and who have to make decisions in that situation, which is very difficult for me, and even more so given the emotions and the speed at which they drive. I really like these sports and find them very interesting.