César Azpilicueta’s year started with him winning the World Cup and could end with him winning the World Cup, too. “And in the middle,” he says, “everything happened.” The Spain defender is laughing but he hasn’t always over the past 11 months. The way he describes 2022, his 16th year in elite football and the most surreal, difficult and potentially successful, everything really does sound like everything. “It feels like three years and we’re still in December. We started as world champions with Chelsea, the only [club] title I didn’t have. Then: the war, the sanctions, the personal situation …”
And now the World Cup again, this time with his country: a series of meetings with friends and the hope of the perfect close to the longest year. That’s what he wants, and also what he has gone for in the Spanish players’ predictions league. Azpilicueta settles into a chair in at their university training base on the eve of the last-16 tie with Morocco. There is a lot to get through so let’s start in the middle. With the moments when it started to fall apart, Azpilicueta not just unsure whether he would stay at Chelsea but whether there would be a Chelsea to stay at.
