Never mind Zinedine Zidane or Roberto Carlos, forget Raúl, Luis Figo and David Beckham, and as for Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos, Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, nah. Ignore the galácticos, the hundreds of footballers who have shared his 14-year journey across eight clubs, three countries and the Spanish national team; when Roberto Soldado really wants to impress his son, he tells him he used to play with Harry Kane.

There is a big grin, a flash of pride, and the former Tottenham striker imitates conversations with nine-year-old Enzo, all wide-eyed in wonder. “He’s really into football and if we’re watching the Premier League or Harry scoring for England, I’m there saying: ‘I played with this guy.’ ‘Yeah?!’ ‘Yeah.’ It’s nice. I’m really happy for him, his success, especially because of the person he is.” Soldado pauses, then bursts out laughing. “I’d have just liked him to have waited a little bit.

“I always say if there is one period of my career I’m not happy with, it’s my time at Tottenham,” Soldado says. It is nobody’s fault and his analysis of why it did not work is profound, but it did not help that he encountered a 20-year-old kid competing for his place who would become an idol in his house. “I also had Harry Kane’s boom to contend with,” he adds, grinning.

That is just one of many stories Soldado tells, time flying by. Outside, it is pouring with rain, cold, the wind whipping through Granada’s training ground, where soaked players have spent the last 90 minutes sliding about. It has been another long, hard session at the promoted club whose only aim, their manager says, is fighting relegation. At 34, you wonder if Soldado really needed this, yet there is nowhere he would rather be and he is still running around like a teenager. More, it emerges, than when he was a teenager.

Soldado could have sought a golden semi-retirement somewhere but after two years at Fenerbahce he wanted to come home and continue playing. He is in better shape than ever – “I weigh seven kilos less than at [Real] Madrid [aged 21]; I see pictures of myself and I’m embarrassed” – and as fiercely competitive as before. Granada led La Liga for the first time in 61 years, a start “none of us could have ever imagined”, and while reality soon returned with a solitary point from the next five games, he scored as they returned to winning ways last weekend.

The end of his playing career is near, he knows, but he resists. “A lot of friends are ex-players and when you retire it’s difficult. If I was born again, I’d come back as a footballer. You come here daily, enjoy every moment; that’s what keeps me going, still competitive, alive. This is the perfect job, no one wants it to end. I don’t think about how little time I have left – I don’t want to – but I know it’s coming.”

Roberto Soldado’s spell at Spurs was a frustrating one. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

It is 15 years since his first professional game in the Copa del Rey, 14 since he made his league debut, replacing Zinedine Zidane. Now there is a player to tell your son about. “Yeah,” he grins, “but he didn’t see him play. When we see Zidane, the coach, I tell him I was his teammate and he says: ‘Was he any good?’ Was he any good?! So out comes YouTube, type ‘Zidane’.”

Soldado is falling about now. Did you see Zidane being a manager? “He was quite shy, but at that time, I wasn’t really aware of where I was …”

And that is where it starts. Soldado telling an extraordinary story about a boy making his way in a new world, losing his way too; a kid in a rarified world.

“I was a niñato,” he says. The word does not translate well: something like spoilt brat, perhaps the closest equivalent is little shit. When it is suggested the galáctico culture didn’t help, subverting rules of sporting success, he interjects: “There were players like Figo, Zidane, Raúl, who were super professional.” Then he laughs again: “But I was watching others … I followed what I shouldn’t have followed.

“You have to take responsibility for yourself, to know what’s appropriate and what isn’t, where the limits are. I’d go out thinking I was bigger than Beckham. I wasn’t mentally prepared; my head wasn’t ready. It’s hard. I’d like to have had the chance to play for that Madrid team at 100%. I look back and think: ‘What a niñato I was.’ Someone should have got hold of me, given me a slap, said: ‘What are you doing?’”

If there’s one thing I won’t be totally at peace with the day I retire it’s how I played in England

Eventually, someone did. “I wasn’t looking after myself, I’d eat loads. I look at photos and think: how was I going to play with the galácticos in that shape? If I had looked after myself better, had the maturity, maybe I’d have had more chances. That idea lingers. If you gave me a glass of wine, I’d drink it and if I was chatting, well, I’d have another. Aged 17, 18, somebody would say ‘why don’t we go for a drink?’ at 1am, and I’d be the first getting ready to go out. Madrid contacted my parents. My dad took a two-year leave of absence, came to Madrid, set boundaries. Then I moved in with a friend who’s now here in Granada. I was more conscientious. And that’s when I met my wife, which settled everything.

“I knew I had gone too far, overstepped the mark. I got to know a lot of people in Madrid from going out; they could lead that life because they weren’t professional footballers, they didn’t have to play for Madrid. In the end, you understand that. ‘You, go out if you like; I have to do something else.’ Thankfully my parents and my wife were there to put me on the right road. It was a good job.”

From there, a long, successful career began. “I was a dickhead who didn’t know where he was,” Soldado says. ‘Was’ is the word. No more. He is fantastic company: honest, open, funny, yet serious with it, entirely convincing, his analyses clear, unflinching. At Granada, they speak highly of him, a role model, his signing hugely significant. Few have his dedication, discipline or enthusiasm. It is his eighth club, he has been at better places, made better money, but there is no sign of fatigue or laziness. Quite the opposite.

He arrived at Granada via Osasuna, Getafe, Valencia, Spurs, Villarreal and Fenerbahce – “nice memories of all of them” – and it was the perfect destination, he says. Although, had England called then – or two years earlier when he headed to Turkey – he would have felt the pull, a shot at vindication. “I’m convinced I would have accepted the challenge to try again,” he says. “I don’t regret going to Tottenham at all, and I was convinced it would go well – I thought, with my style, my form, I was going to fit well – but when I went … well, it was completely the opposite. If there’s one thing I won’t be totally at peace with the day I retire it’s how I played in England.”

Soldado wonders what the impact was on his Spain career too. He has explained before why he felt things did not work, how he tried to adapt to a more physical football, changing his game, and the impact mentally. Then there was Kane, whose emergence “set me aside a bit”. But there is no bitterness; instead there is pride, fondness. “I understood perfectly because you could see it from the start.

“I saw his level in training and it was amazing. I don’t think there’s a limit to what he can do; we still haven’t seen the best of Harry Kane. When we did shooting drills … pfff. With both feet, he was prolific. He plays so well back to goal, gives assists, is intelligent, thinks quicker than before. Maybe he had struggled this season because the team wasn’t having the best time, but he’s continually improving.”

Soldado looks to hold off Valencia’s Geoffrey Kondogbia. Photograph: Santiago Vidal/Penta Press/REX/Shutterstock

“I don’t know [what has gone wrong] for Spurs. I still talk to Danny Rose and Jan Vertonghen but about personal stuff. You could see it wasn’t working. [Mauricio] Pochettino had a very clear idea; he worked us very hard tactically and physically, which I think we needed after Tim Sherwood. From the start, he connected with the dressing room and every year it got better. [But] perhaps so many years working together …

“The level Pochettino got from the players was higher than anyone could have expected. [But] they lost consistency and maybe Spurs needed a change. Now one of the best coaches has arrived and he’ll get them competing. Kane will always be grateful to Pochettino. His big change came with him but he’ll trust José Mourinho because he’s a great coach.”

Back to Kane, then. And, with apologies, the inevitable question. Is he good enough to end up where your journey started, playing for Real Madrid?

“I’d like to see it,” Soldado says, and Enzo would too.