At home, my brother and I were hooked on football. We would play with the ball in the street all day. We collected stickers, and we’d play chapas – a popular game in Spain played with bottle caps.

There was a time when my brother, who is a year and a half older than me, left me with the bottle caps.

I’d set up the pitch with two goals, and the stands around it, near the front door of the house. It was a small house, but the whole family would come together there on many occasions.

One Saturday afternoon, someone rang at the door. My mother avoided the bottle caps as best she could and opened the door. It was my aunt Lola (Flores, a famous flamenco dancer and film actress). When she came in, she saw the pitch I had there. She didn’t take any notice, but my mother did: “This kid puts all this stuff here, where it’s a nuisance.”

My aunt just took a big step over it all. “Leave him. If this kid is doing that, it’s because he has something in his head.”

And she was right. What I had in my head was simply football, and the desire to invent things.

“Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan was the first team that really had an impact on me”

My first memory of watching something structured, something that really resonated with me, was when I was nine and I watched the 1974 World Cup in West Germany. Those are my first great memories of football. In those days in Spain, they only broadcast one league match a week on TV: 7pm every Sunday.

That World Cup completely absorbed me, right from the opening ceremony. I told my mother that I didn’t want to go on holiday to Mallorca with my mates. I’d rather stay at home watching all the matches. She was fine with it. Mostly, because she was afraid of us travelling.