Futsal, Movistar Inter

Profile: “El Cervatillo” Daniel Ibañes

“I had the good fortune of sharing not only the court, but also years of friendship with one of the most predatory players of all time: Daniel Ibañes. He attacked the “the fawn” of the opposing team.”

Julio Garcia Mera, one of our collaborators from LiderSport and a Spanish futsal legend in his own right, talks about one of his former teammates and confidant, Daniel Ibañes. Ibañes is the president of the futsal club SegoSala based in Segovia, Spain, one of the clubs that we work with to offer player and coaching development programs.

 

Without compassion. With the swiftness of a blow. They could say that when I was going, he was already back. When I was beginning to read the novel, he had already finished. I stayed on the periphery of the sport, while he was at the center. He was the center.

That’s how those who are on a different level are. That’s how those that smell blood are.

When we jumped up to warm up on the half court that corresponded to us, the ritual was set in motion: warming up in a herd, slapping hands, the usual phrases. But Daniel wasn’t a routines type of guy. He dedicated his time to something else, to analysing the rivals. After a few seconds he would tell me, “the fawn is the blonde one or the one with his socks halfway down his calves.” And the plan was set in motion: Dani was patient. He waited for the moment, his moment, that instance in the match in which “the fawn” thought he was safe inside the pack, remained unprotected. He would let down his guard down, he was overconfident. He didn’t realize that there was a predator nearby, waiting for the smallest mistake: this small mistake would change everything.

One might think that the fawn was a novelty player, one of the new arrivals that only went in for a few minutes to give a little rest to the veterans. Sometimes it was that way. But many other times it turned out the that the weakest link was in fact their best best player. Daniel had everything calculated. He sat at the edge of the match. And waited.

Today there are a few predators on the loose: Cardinal, Álex Ciezano, Ferrao, Pola, Ricardinho… If one of them were less than 5 meters away, follow one of the ten commandments of futsal: touch and go. You wouldn’t want to be their next fawn.

This article can be read in Spanish here.

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